International Trade committee  I agree. Particularly when you have countries like Vietnam that are emerging as global furniture manufacturers, for instance, they are being pressured to source legal supply because they re-export back to the United States and to Europe, where there is legality legislation in pla

International Trade committee  I have to say that our concerns aren't as complicated as those involving intellectual property. Things are much more nuanced. The main issues on our end are tariffs, environmental considerations and the supply programs. It's not quite as complicated. As for the interpretation th

International Trade committee  I would repeat that our concerns are not quite as complicated and are almost always the same for every agreement.

International Trade committee  Pardon me?

International Trade committee  It would be very useful to see the text and share it with our members, but so far, I have been working well with the negotiators. The information they give us isn't as detailed as I would like, but it's enough to assure our members that the government is negotiating in good faith

International Trade committee  They want to focus on provisions, rules and a policy that ensure that the fibre is certified and derived from legal sources, particularly in the chapter dealing with the environment. We are quite confident in that regard.

International Trade committee  We do recognize the need for the government to be able to negotiate in a manner that serves Canada's interests, particularly given such a large negotiating group that they're focused on at this point. We've signed an NDA, as I said earlier. We've done so with every agreement: th

International Trade committee  We haven't seen text. We haven't seen text for CETA either. It's one of those areas where we would like to see the text, but we've been given some strong assurances by our negotiators and we're pretty confident in the fact that they're seized with our issues.

International Trade committee  I'll admit I've been on the trade file since last fall. I don't know how far back that goes, but that has been my experience. I'm given as much access as I need to government officials, but I haven't seen text, I have to admit.

International Trade committee  Chapter 19 is the dispute resolution chapter of the NAFTA, and certainly the U.S. Lumber Coalition has been very active and creative in finding opportunities to raise their concerns with the U.S. federal government around softwood lumber access. Certainly this was another opportu

International Trade committee  Yes, we have for the most part. That's because in particular areas we did have some opportunities to expand our forest products exports. In some other areas, take Panama for instance, that was a small deal but it really impacted a single mill, and that single mill impacts the com

International Trade committee  We take part in group briefings whenever a round of consultations comes to an end. Ms. Hillman and her team hold a teleconference, and we receive instructions at a high level. We have also had the opportunity to sit down with the negotiators to share our concerns with them, but

International Trade committee  Yes, other groups took part. It was a consultation of industry stakeholders.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  Thank you. On behalf of the member companies of the Forest Products Association of Canada, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to present to you today. With mills in almost every province, FPAC's members manufacture a comprehensive line of primary and secondary pulp, pap