International Trade committee  Yes, I stand by anything that's written in that paper.

International Trade committee  I believe there is a possibility that it can work. My function is usually to try to stir up discussion and try to point to problems. The problem I see with the United States is that they've sold a big package, and Congress really hasn't had a look at it yet. When they go to get

International Trade committee  They can't. I don't have positions, by the way. I'm telling you the facts.

International Trade committee  It's no different from having NAFTA. We haven't addressed those things in NAFTA. In the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, we used a mechanism whereby we would allow companies to get duty remissions on imports of finished goods and parts. Mr. Flaherty has gotten rid of al

International Trade committee  I would suggest that it would be an awful lot worse if we didn't have trade agreements with them, but other people did.

International Trade committee  Everything is hard to tell, but my first comments suggested that you have to look at trade agreements in the long term. The gorilla in the room, which deals with our trade balances with a lot of people, is the current strength of the Canadian dollar. If we had a Canadian dollar t

International Trade committee  You mean, at the end of the movie?

International Trade committee  If we try to stay in a cocoon it will, but no.

International Trade committee  The United States drafted the texts, and they drafted the texts on procurement, leaving out state procurement. They drafted texts on investment and investment challenges, leaving out subnational governments. The controversial provisions about state-owned enterprise do not include

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. We've prepared a lot of background information and given you a link to a study that's several hundred pages long. What I'd like to touch on in the opening remarks are some of the developments in the TPP, and then I'll answer in advance a couple of questions

International Trade committee  That's true, yes. Notwithstanding the fact that the official secrets act that I signed when I was in the Department of Finance a long time ago is good for life, and I've been reminded about that. In any event, it is coming together better, but we have problems with the way the

International Trade committee  Small and medium-sized enterprises need to understand the culture and understand particular characteristics of local demand. TCS is on the ground. They have their contacts, they have their locally engaged staff, and they're ideally suited to provide that type of guidance. You c

International Trade committee  Yes, I was referring to the Trade Commissioner Service.

International Trade committee  There are three separate problems that I see there. First, the people who've stayed in and made it a career are close to retirement. Second, in the middle the people are much less inclined to stay in for a career. They are getting very good experience and they go out to the priva

International Trade committee  With regard to the types of trade agreements that are being negotiated now, instead of just reducing tariffs they deal with a whole range of issues. There are dispute settlement mechanisms and consultation mechanisms, and these tend to work over time. The example I used to give