International Trade committee  It's obvious that, for Canada, not having this information exchange in the future with Panama would be limiting, if the flow of commercial relations between the two countries becomes significant—as it may be in the future. In any case, it is Panama's goal to become a bigger and b

International Trade committee  Fine.

International Trade committee  Because of how this is working right now—you know it because you heard it in committee—even though the Panamanian government had talked about concluding a information exchange agreement, it isn't necessarily a token of good faith or—

International Trade committee  If the government's goal is to find a way not to sign the agreement, the fact that the Panamanian government is refusing to sign this information exchange agreement gives it a valid reason.

International Trade committee  When I gave my presentation earlier, I think I was clear on the fact that not only—

International Trade committee  — you are forced to say yes because of the international tax competition, but you are going to say yes. That's what's going to happen because you don't have a choice, given—

International Trade committee  What you are saying is very interesting, but in reality, from the moment we opened the markets to multinationals and allowed them to shop for tax systems, we put these systems into tax competition with each other. Here, we are talking about the agreement with Panama, but we could

International Trade committee  Not only will more people not pay tax, but on top of that, what's much more significant—

International Trade committee  — and I will try to explain that in 30 seconds. In all taxation principles for managing a country, there is one that I think is extremely important, and that is that there must always be a balance between voters, markets and the state. Obviously, we know that the markets have bec

International Trade committee  Do you want to respond?

International Trade committee  You are asking us to answer yes or no. What is the question exactly?

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair?

International Trade committee  I'm sorry. I think I misunderstood when you invited us to do our entire presentation. If you wish, I can continue my presentation after Mr. Laurin or I can continue right away.

International Trade committee  I thought you were asking for a brief introduction about us. It was a mistake on my part.

International Trade committee  I'll continue then. A free trade agreement between Canada and Panama involving a considerable fiscal value has been signed but not ratified. You asked me here today so that I could give you my opinion on the matter. You are hoping to find out whether Canada should ratify this agr