International Trade committee  Yes, but there's nothing in your argument to back up your point that a disparity in wealth has been a result of NAFTA. You could just as easily make the argument that the reason we have lost manufacturing jobs is because technological innovations have made it easier to off-shore

International Trade committee  But we had the opportunity to develop export markets, and now we're saying to them that they don't? I think if you looked at NAFTA, it's unprecedented in terms of the actual benefit it has brought. It quadrupled trade up until about 2000, with steady gains in trade and investmen

International Trade committee  I should preface this by saying that despite the fact that we have very large companies in our membership, we are an organization of modest means. There's only so much we can do, and conducting a study of that scale is beyond the ability of organizations of our size. Typically, y

International Trade committee  I will say that this is going to be a bit of a loaded question, because when FTA negotiations were conducted between Canada and Europe they said our wine sector would be decimated. Well, we saw that wasn't the case; in fact, the opposite happened. So to try to guess how certain

International Trade committee  Touching on the NAFTA experience, I would argue that it's been overwhelmingly positive. When you negotiate trade agreements, it's not always going to work out perfectly in every single sector. Also, times will change. Economic circumstances will change. When we negotiated NAFTA

International Trade committee  I don't think so. I think they've recognized the differences in our economies. Certain European countries have made no secret of their displeasure at how Canada has conducted itself at times. I haven't seen it creep into this negotiation. They understand we have a vibrant resourc

International Trade committee  They are more or less from most sectors. We have manufacturing. We have commercial services, legal services--

International Trade committee  Yes. We have capital markets, agriculture, engineering, infrastructure provision, resources, oil and gas, mining, and pharmaceuticals, both research-based and generic.

International Trade committee  Well, yes. They're excited; otherwise, I don't think they would consider being members in our organization. There's a difference. They're excited, but they also have their wish lists, the things they'd like to see come out of these negotiations. I think there's a broad recognit

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just as a brief overview, the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business was founded about ten years ago. The reason we were created, with the blessing of the President of the European Commission and the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, was mainly because

International Trade committee  Just to add to that, the geographical indicator system is legitimate, but it should not be used as a catch-all for every single thing. If it serves a legitimate business purpose, much as our trademarking system in Canada does, then I think it should be reasonably negotiated withi

International Trade committee  Yes. I'll just go quickly through the three points. Dispute resolution will likely either be what's called an investor-state provision--which is what is in the NAFTA agreement, meaning that companies have the legal right to directly challenge governments if they feel their righ

International Trade committee  May I just add a quick final point? We tried to do just regulatory issues during the TIEA, the trade and investment enhancement agreement. The reason it wasn't successful was not that we were negotiating the wrong things; it was just that the package wasn't broad enough to facil

International Trade committee  I'd add that the other thing is that we both have sensitivities. The Europeans and Canada both have sensitivities. We're not saying to dismantle everything and start again. We understand there are political realities, including a minority Parliament in Canada, but there's enough

International Trade committee  Actually, I'd like to answer two questions. The first is that I would be curious to know where your statistics showing that free trade agreements lead to a national trade decrease have come from. The second is that it seems the focus is entirely on trade. If you look at a lot of