International Trade committee  Sure. We actually haven't made a lot progress in that particular area because on the EU side they only recently gained a mandate from member states to negotiate in this area of investment protection. Prior to that, they had no mandate, and the competence previously rested with me

International Trade committee  Thank you. Yes, we've been holding intensive consultations with the agricultural sector on the benefits they could foresee in this negotiation and eventual agreement. We heard virtually across the board that there is very strong interest in the EU market—everything from the grai

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, but I think the understanding was that there would be no opening comments from my side.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. There has been some ongoing analysis on all of the issues, of course, as the minister indicated. But on this particular issue, since we have not made any concessions in the negotiations to date on that issue, we haven't done any in-depth, extensive analysis

International Trade committee  At this point, we are fairly advanced on the fish issues, and certainly we have had an offer from the European Union that offers the potential to go to complete duty-free access across the board on all fish products, which is of extreme interest to us. The EU has raised a numbe

Canadian Heritage committee  No. I think you've captured that, actually.

Agriculture committee  No, that's not correct. There is a whole series of tables that deal with federal-only issues. Customs and trade facilitation, rules of origin, goods generally in dealing with the tariffs, and intellectual property issues, for the most part--all are tables dealing with federal leg

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  We originally presented that idea I think back in 2006 or so, but it has been adopted and has appeared in all of the texts that have been drafted since then.

Agriculture committee  Gilles may want to add a bit to this, but I would say from my experience, from the perspective of most developing countries they're looking at us as a wealthier developed country and, again, they want access to our markets. They're not really in a position to be able to replicate

Agriculture committee  I think that's happened over a long period of time. Certainly the European Union and the United States have a lot of resources at their disposal to provide support to agriculture, and have done so with enthusiasm over the years. What the U.S. and the EU have done in particular, p

Agriculture committee  Well, I think when you talk to any trade negotiator from another country, what he or she is mainly interested in is access to your markets, particularly if you have higher-priced markets. They are much less focused on the kinds of systems you might have in place, such as supply m

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. I think we've been putting a lot of effort behind the whole area of regulatory cooperation, because we see this as providing a lot of benefit over the longer term. It's always easier if you can prevent a significant difference from occurring rather than having to dea

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. It's been an issue in the negotiations partly because the EU has raised some questions about the breadth of our cultural exemption in previous trade agreements, but by and large, we don't have huge differences with the EU over culture. Certainly the Governmen

Agriculture committee  I think there is a very great difference between the cultural industry in Canada and the agricultural industry in Canada. Certainly from the perspective of agriculture in the west, and, for that matter, in parts of Ontario, Quebec, and the east as well, they have a great interest