International Trade committee  I don't know that I can speak to the whole agreement because as noted there are an awful lot of words there. There are gains on the trade side for sure. Gains are projected to Canada's GDP as a result. Depending on which economist you listen to, they could be reasonable gains or small gains.

International Trade committee  I don't actually hold any patents. I did apply for a U.S. patent at one point, but the company I was working for at the time decided not to go through with it. It wasn't worth the expense, basically.

International Trade committee  True. It's good for the patent holder, for sure.

International Trade committee  There are also provisions, though, to do with extending the patent based on delays in issuing times and things like that, which I think are—

International Trade committee  There is also a kind of middle ground where, in the Canada-EU trade agreement, the ISDS provisions were renegotiated after it had been signed, and they added a lot of extra safeguards, mostly because the agreement was not going to be acceptable to Europe with the ISDS provisions as they were.

International Trade committee  The point I was making was that there is a provision in the TPP that it only comes into force if 85%, I believe it is, of the total GDP of the member countries actually ratify it. Given that 85% number, that means that if either Japan or the U.S.A. decides not to ratify it, then the agreement would not come into force at all for any of the countries.

International Trade committee  My real feeling is that there are more disadvantages in the TPP than there are advantages. The free trade part of the TPP, I like; I'm in favour of that. If you could cut out all the other stuff, then I would say yes, go for it, but with all the other stuff that's in there, I think the disadvantages of it outweigh the advantages.

International Trade committee  Certainly. Good afternoon. My name is Chris Brand. I'm a software developer. I have participated in various government consultations involving copyright and lawful access previously. I appear today in a personal capacity, representing only my own views. I believe that free markets, with a minimum amount of regulation, give good results.

International Trade committee  If the TPP were limited to reducing tariffs and trade barriers, I would support it. Unfortunately, it appears to have been co-opted as a convenient mechanism for policy-laundering a wide range of other regulatory changes. Patents and copyrights are government-granted monopolies introduced to address problems with the free market.