International Trade committee  As I mentioned in my earlier statement, we have a significant chapter on procurement in this particular FTA. It gives Canadian companies in construction and other sectors access to the contracts that are being let within this enormous project in Panama. We have not taken advantag

International Trade committee  Would you like me to stop?

International Trade committee  On the actual projected benefits, I'm sure I have that in my binder. I'll look for it and see if we can come back to it.

International Trade committee  You'll notice I got out my facts and figures. I have a lot of facts and figures, so I will try to highlight some of the analysis we've done on both the specific reductions and some of the benefits we see. I have a document here that you might find interesting, where we go throug

International Trade committee  There is a procedure in the agreements that is followed if the reduction in tariffs causes a country an internal problem. Normally, we use it at the beginning or as market conditions require. So there is a mechanism to analyze the difficulty, a safeguard mechanism as it is called

International Trade committee  What we do in leading up to and then during the course of negotiations is that we have a lot of fairly detailed consultations with the sectors of the Canadian economy that are interested in that market and are interested in expanding into or entering into it. So in that situation

International Trade committee  Under those agreements, the obligations apply to the laws of the countries involved and to everything that happens in those countries. This does not affect Canadian businesses only; it is much broader. Panamanian and Jordanian companies must meet those obligations. That is being

International Trade committee  First, under the labour agreement, the panel is formed according to a mechanism that is already in the agreement. Once the agreement is in effect, the mechanism in the agreement is used to create the panel, based on need and after a request has been made. There is a dialogue firs

International Trade committee  There are a few reasons why this is a strategically important agreement. This will be only our second free trade agreement in the region; we have one with Israel. This is an economy that is important. It's a country that is a moderate and useful ally in the region. We find th

International Trade committee  In the labour side accords, as I was mentioning, the standards are set in accordance with the ILO convention. There is a graded system of consultation that at its most serious level is the striking of an assessment panel, and the allegation of non-compliance with the labour stand

International Trade committee  I'll start with the premise of your question, which I think is quite right. The policy motivation behind concluding these side accords on labour and the environment in our bilateral free trade agreements is precisely that. There is more than one motivator, I suppose, but one may

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. Of course I'd like to say yes, absolutely.

International Trade committee  These things are challenging to predict, but hopefully we'll do better. I think, though, what is significant is, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, that this is a country that has had very high tariffs and some extremely high peaks, so we anticipate the benefits from those sig

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. I'd be happy to give you the information. The free trade agreement itself has a chapter on labour that is a general commitment to the labour principles under the ILO convention to which Canada and Panama are both parties. At the same time as we conclu

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of this committee, for the opportunity to speak to you today. As Mr. Stephenson said, I am the Director General of the Trade Negotiations Bureau at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In my presentation today, I will provi