International Trade committee  Good morning and thank you, everyone, for inviting us here to speak on behalf of Canada's 90,000 manufacturers and exporters and our association's 2,500 direct members, to express our support for Canada joining the Pacific Alliance. Manufacturing is the single largest business s

International Trade committee  It's a good question. I'd start by saying that companies can only export what they can produce. It's hard to export things that they're not able to produce. One of the problems we have in Canada is that we're actually pretty much at capacity in all sectors across manufacturing.

International Trade committee  I think it was former minister Fast who said at one time that 98% of Canadian companies don't export. They don't export because they're really small and don't have any capability to export. Capacity is one thing, and capability is something else entirely. If we're going to be s

International Trade committee  We have a history. Looking back through all of our trade agreements, we can see that, aside from the Canada-U.S. FTA, most of our trade agreements have resulted in an increase in raw materials, primarily natural resources. The real value, however, comes from what you do with natu

International Trade committee  The two go hand in hand. I think we often get stuck looking at domestic issues and export issues in two different silos, and that's why, in our comments, we try to talk about how they're connected. If you look at really successful export-oriented countries—Germany, South Korea,

International Trade committee  I'm happy to, but I've been talking. I think it is important, and let's use South Korea and the dispute between pork producers and auto manufacturers. It wasn't helpful for anyone on either side. We need to figure out ways to structure agreements and sometimes maybe the best way

International Trade committee  You can't move anything, it doesn't matter what it is, without effective transportation networks, whether that's inside a city or across the country. Certainly one of our focuses has been on Industrie 2030, and our bigger picture of growing the manufacturing sector is to have bet

International Trade committee  The only thing I was going to add was that we talk about Halifax or Vancouver or Montreal as the big international ports. The biggest international port is in Windsor. We tend to forget that.

International Trade committee  Yes, I know. And how long have we been trying to get a new bridge built in Windsor, as a good example? That's not just an automotive thing. I think half of our food exports go through that port as well. It's not just a perimeter port. Also, within NAFTA, it's critically importa

International Trade committee  It should help. I guess we'll see what comes of it when it actually gets up and running, but it should help. Part of the problem we get into is a lot of short-term planning. This should look more at long-term strategic planning. That's our hope, anyway, that this is what it will

International Trade committee  Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to speak on behalf of Canada's 90,000 manufacturers and exporters and our association's 2,500 direct members to express our support for a free trade agreement between Canada and Mercosur. Manufacturing is the single largest business se

International Trade committee  The bottom line is you can't export abroad if you can't make it here. It's a fundamental aspect, and we have struggled in Canada for years with investment. Probably going back to the great recession, maybe even a bit before that, we've had investment problems. That certainly has

International Trade committee  Sure. That's why we're supporting the agreement, as long as you get the right structure in place around it. When you're talking 35% tariffs, I don't know what it specifically is in HVAC, but let's assume it's up around that level, you're not going to get into that market, exporti

International Trade committee  I think we've had this conversation here before as well and I'm not sure there's one easy answer. I would say it starts at home to allow companies to grow. We have a lot of tax and regulatory measures in place that really punish companies for growing.

International Trade committee  No. I'm just talking about specific domestic tax policies that actually limit the growth of a company. I know of companies, for example, that once they hit a certain threshold of revenue they're told not to grow anymore by their accountants because actually it's tax-punitive to