Foreign Affairs committee  The business of folding side agreements into NAFTA goes back to Mr. Clinton, as Mr. McRae just mentioned. I don't think Canada has anything to fear from that. Obviously, as Mr. Clarkson just pointed out, on the environment we would have to upgrade our current policies, but we had

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. On Mr. Goldring's point, there are only two countries that have land borders with the U.S., and that's a huge advantage because we can ship by truck. No other country has that advantage. If we're using sea routes out of B.C., for instance, on the west coast, that puts us in

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd say the priority is here in Ottawa. I think that, when you commit to a dispute settlement system, for example—and I differ with Mr. McRae here—you stick to it. We must be prepared, precisely as he said, to lose if we lose and to apply sanctions. Obviously, the partner must do

Foreign Affairs committee  That's it.

Foreign Affairs committee  I probably have the same difficulty answering that question as Mr. Clarkson. However, I think it's clear that Mr. Obama does not have any specific trade policy experience. In fact, he views matters in a very comprehensive way. I believe that's how we should view them as well. I a

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the committee for inviting me to speak to you today. I'll try to divide my remarks into three segments, somewhat as Mr. Clarkson did. First, I'm going to remind you why Canada entered into a free trade agreement with the United

International Trade committee  I have in fact noted Canada's desire to negotiate a certain number of bilateral agreements with countries that are much smaller and less important to Canada in terms of trade. I believe that is related to the fact that our neighbour and main partner began to do that before we did

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. With respect to your first question about action the government should have taken at the outset, I have to say that it did exactly what it was supposed to do. In 2001, when the previous 1996 agreement ended, the government immediately stated, with the indust

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for that question, Mr. André. I don't know that what you are proposing is very different from what already exists because, to my knowledge, both in Ottawa and Quebec City, as well as in some of the other provinces, parliamentary committees have been used in t

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Bains. You quoted some of the comments I made before a Senate committee, approximately a week and a half ago, with respect to the history of the softwood lumber dispute. However, I did not make the comments you attributed to me. In fact, they are comment

International Trade committee  I believe you may be right but, as I already stated, I was not sufficiently involved in that to be able to provide further clarification in that regard.

International Trade committee  The anti-circumvention clause in the agreement is, indeed, one of the reasons why the Free Trade Lumber Council opposed the agreement at the time. It is a very worrisome clause. For example, will this prevent the provinces from changing their policies? Probably not, but it will

International Trade committee  Well, you're placing me in a strange position, because if I say yes, they should have more resources, I'm arguing for more people to manage trade. Yet I work for something called the Free Trade Lumber Council. So I don't think you should be given more resources to manage quotas.

International Trade committee  I only need another minute or two.

International Trade committee  There were two mechanisms, including a very broad based committee dealing with more horizontal issues, called the International Trade Advisory Committee, or ITAC, and 15 or more sectoral groups established with a view to gathering more detailed feedback on the issues under negoti