International Trade committee  I would like to clarify the question. We are not yet in negotiations. But Canada is trying to establish a dispute resolution system for investments, like Chapter 11 of NAFTA or other agreements that Canada has negotiated.

International Trade committee  I could maybe ask Susan Harper to speak. She is leading the process with Mercosur, but before I do, since we've already had some exchanges on this, I'll respond. At this stage, we don't feel that we're wasting our time. We think there's an interesting opportunity here. There are

International Trade committee  Regarding the WTO Information Technology Agreement, I guess the question is how it would relate to a bilateral negotiation. The ITA is an agreement under which, essentially, a number of countries have come together and agreed to not charge tariffs on high-tech equipment. There's

International Trade committee  That is the type of restriction that would be dealt with in the investment chapter. We typically would seek national treatment for investments, subject to certain exclusions. Obviously, the types of commitments that would have to be negotiated with Brazil--

International Trade committee  Do you mean about that in particular?

International Trade committee  At this stage, we're really not into those levels of specifics. Particularly on investment, but even in most topics, it's more a high-level discussion on the type of approach to take, whether they would be interested in discussion, and what types of commitments they would be inte

International Trade committee  Just to clarify that question, were you were talking about Mercosur advancing...?

International Trade committee  Or Brazil. Yes, it's a little early to know at this point. But the purpose of our exploratory discussions is to make sure we have a very clear picture before entering into a full-fledged negotiation, because we don't want to commit all of our negotiating resources and time to a

International Trade committee  On trade specifically, it would have to be with all Mercosur countries. Because they're a customs union, they negotiate only as a block on free trade agreements. There are some aspects that they can negotiate bilaterally. We have a foreign investment protection and promotion agre

International Trade committee  Let's talk about small and medium enterprises and the competitive conditions in Brazil and the Mercosur countries. If one day we had a free trade agreement, we would really like to have certain conditions for the exchange of services and access to the market for all our companies

International Trade committee  I understand your concern. It's impossible to predict with certainty, now, what type of agreement will be made. But it is in Canada's interest to establish rules about the exchange of goods and services and also about the treatment of Canadian investments, and that these conditio

International Trade committee  I wasn't personally involved, but I have some history.

International Trade committee  There were a number of challenges. The interests at that time didn't align well enough for the conclusion of a negotiation. We never launched full-fledged negotiations with Mercosur. We were in discussions with them as part of the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Ameri

International Trade committee  Currently some of our key exports to Brazil are fertilizers, coal, newsprint, and gas turbines. I think you could expect to see those expand if we were able to get a comprehensive trade agreement. But it's obviously a very large market with important demand for industrial goods

International Trade committee  I don't have a lot of statistics with me on beef imports from Brazil. I'm not sure that we have a quota system for the import of beef, so I'm not sure. But in terms of certificates, it may be more on the phytosanitary requirement side of things. I know we've had some issues with