International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Kirsten. I am David Morrison, the Global Affairs Canada assistant deputy minister for the Americas, which includes the United States and everything to the south. I am also the chief development officer of the department. I am very pleased that the committe

International Trade committee  There are no changes at all vis-à-vis Canada. The Pacific Alliance itself continues to be a going concern. This is an initiative that sprung up amongst the four countries of Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Chile. It began in 2011 and quite quickly concluded a negotiation to elimina

International Trade committee  Again, I get to do the nice bits and Kirsten gets to do the bits where things aren't unrolling as maybe we'd like, so it's over to Kirsten.

International Trade committee  Our chief economist, who specializes in the strength of the Canadian dollar, is also here. Let me just say that obviously in some sectors of the Canadian economy a cheaper dollar is very beneficial. It should also lead, over time, to greater inward investment into Canada. André

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. I once asked....

International Trade committee  Okay, thank you. I'll take the first cut, and then I'll turn to my colleagues. Yes, “Buy America” is one of the irritants I talked about. The figure I cited was that actually 77% of all of our merchandise exports in 2014 went to the United States, so it is by far and away our

International Trade committee  Thank you. I'm actually not aware of the economic relationship having diminished. It certainly dipped after the financial crisis of 2008. Economic activity overall slowed down. My recollection is that the figure I cited for 2014 merchandise exports, so not even including our tra

International Trade committee  The summit happens not every year but most years, or it has happened most years, or every year or two, for the past decade or more. It's colloquially known as the “three amigos” summit. The last time it took place was in February 2014 when the Mexican president, President Pena Ni

International Trade committee  I have no new information, but the Ambassador Bridge actually carries staggering statistics, which I cited in my introductory remarks. Twenty-five per cent of that merchandise trade takes place within the Windsor-Detroit corridor, so obviously a lot of that is autos. It would be

International Trade committee  I actually don't know the historical figures. Ninety per cent strikes me as high, but for as long as I've been active, there's no question that there have been efforts to, as has been said, diversify our trading partners. As just a smart strategy, one diversifies one's portfolio.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, everyone. We really appreciate this invitation to appear before the committee as you begin this timely and important study. The U.S. relationship is obviously critical for Canada. On the economic side, trade in goods and services with the U.S. is eq

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. I'm joined today by my colleagues Martin Moen, the director general for North America and investment at Global Affairs Canada, and by Heidi Hulan, the director general of the international security policy bureau. I'll make the opening statement touching on many of the issu

Foreign Affairs committee  Thanks very much. I'll do the first one, and Martin can do the second. We think that regulatory co-operation and borders in general, pre-clearance being part of the borders issue, are two areas with considerable promise of collaboration with the Trump administration. The Trump a

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. You mentioned my past at CIDA, where I was in charge of bilateral development assistance. A couple of things have happened since then. The first was the amalgamation of CIDA and DFAIT into Global Affairs. Most of that programming still happens in the same way it did u

Foreign Affairs committee  As you've said, it is still early days and very challenging to know where much of this will come out. If you look at how policy positions have evolved from January 20 until now, and frankly, if you look at the President's willingness to roll back previous positions, it's very har