International Trade committee  Honourable members, good afternoon. My warmest thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today about the Pacific Alliance. My field of work at the North-South Institute is on international trade and investment, particularly on aspects that relate to Canada and Latin

International Trade committee  I agree. I will add something very briefly. Yes, it has strong political content, but I think the leaders of these four governments know they have to perform, that they have to show results. Some of the initiatives are very concrete, integrating their stock markets, for examp

International Trade committee  I'd like to add that to some extent, the difference between the Pacific Alliance and other groupings, such as Mercosur or even UNASUR, is that the Pacific Alliance is very determined to provide an expert-led model. They want to trade as freely with the world as possible, particul

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  The North-South Institute is a research policy institute. We are registered as an NGO. Most of our funding comes from the Canadian government, from CIDA and IDRC. We provide advice to the Canadian government, to Canadian society in general, and to Canadian businesses on Canada's

International Trade committee  I have a hard time answering that question. What I can tell you is the way these four other Latin American countries see it is that if they integrate economically to the extent that they are planning to do, they will get, for example, more investments from oil and gas companies

International Trade committee  Thank you, and I offer my apologies for not being able to answer you in French. In regard to your question and also the previous comments from a member of the committee, I've been researching Canadian mining investment, and particularly the economic impact of Canadian mining inv

International Trade committee  What I meant by internal is changes that in the literature on trade are referred to as behind the border, changes that have to do with.... First of all, Canada is a confederation, and therefore it's a somewhat difficult country for others to negotiate with. For example, you negot

International Trade committee  Yes, I think there would also have to be changes with registration of companies, with how many foreign directors there can be in different sectors, and which sectors are off limits from foreign investors, as is the case with banking in Canada and also with communications. There a

International Trade committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me and for the opportunity to speak with you today regarding Bill C-20. My area of research at the North-South Institute is on international trade and investment. I will be providing my testimony from that point of view. I have been workin

International Trade committee  Okay. I will try to summarize. Looking towards the future, the Honduran economy has been underperforming in the Latin American economy for the last decade and in all likelihood it will continue to underperform. There is no economic forecast from anywhere—I've checked Bloomberg,

International Trade committee  Okay. Thank you. My recommendation is that the Canadian government should support a strategy of security, democracy, and prosperity in Honduras by increasing its international aid, particularly aid that supports better economic regulation, administration of the court system, and

International Trade committee  In principle it's a very troubling idea. The international practice with regard to these measures in other developing countries does provide a very bad result. We know that it has already been done in some sub-Saharan African countries, and in some Latin American countries to som

International Trade committee  Yes, I think Canada ought to engage with Honduras. It's just that I don't find signing an FTA at this point to be an effective way of engaging with Honduras if the purpose is to bring development and security and stability to Honduras. It also won't be effective for Canadian busi

International Trade committee  Yes, the reputation of Canada would suffer, particularly because Canada has a comparative advantage as an investor in natural resources for the most part, and that would perhaps produce an increase in the investment in the mining industry in Honduras. As we know from experience o