International Trade committee  Right. It really goes back to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. I'm going to put this fairly simply.

International Trade committee  It's not that you wouldn't understand it, but it would take me more time, I think.

International Trade committee  It's going to be even faster now. The Vienna convention basically says that if you're a dispute settlement panel, you first of all look at the words of the texts. If there's any ambiguity in the words of those texts, you can look to supporting evidence. The joint interpretive i

International Trade committee  Sure. To start with a bit of context, you mentioned the economic crisis and said that this was coming out of that. I think one of the driving forces we've had to help negotiate CETA—and I think this has cut across all governments—has been that we do have a very strong reliance on

International Trade committee  Obviously, we do have a strong interest in TTIP and how that's developing. I've talked to the EU TTIP negotiator on a number of occasions about how things are going. We've certainly been looking at information coming from various other sources. There are large gaps between the E

International Trade committee  With respect to the interpretive instrument, there is a reference, in paragraph 6(a), on the protection of investments, that: CETA includes modern rules on investment that preserve the right of governments to regulate in the public interest including when such regulations affec

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, member states will all have to individually ratify the agreement before those remaining sections come into effect.

International Trade committee  It doesn't come into effect as each member state ratifies it. They have to wait for all of them to have completed it.

International Trade committee  That's right.

International Trade committee  I'm sorry. I couldn't [Inaudible—Editor]

International Trade committee  No, there is not.

International Trade committee  That's right.

International Trade committee  When it comes to the dispute resolution process in the labour chapter, in the environment chapter, and in the financial services chapter, there's certainly input provided by those ministers, yes.

International Trade committee  I will ask one of my experts from the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development to respond to that question. Mark.

International Trade committee  Yes, it's not consistent with what was negotiated in the treaty, so that does present a problem.