International Trade committee  First of all, with respect to the tariff on lentils, the bound tariff in the WTO, the tariff that India may not exceed, may be 30%, but the applied tariff is often at zero when India needs the imports. The problem with that is the uncertainty with respect to whether the tariff is

International Trade committee  I like to use the McCain plant as the best example I can think of in regard to investing in India, because they took a very patient approach, they took a very local approach, and they are very successful. With respect to the balance in the flow of investment, it's a little bit d

International Trade committee  The provinces are closely consulted on the negotiations with India, first of all through the long-standing permanent mechanism for consultation between the federal government and the provinces and territories. It's called C-Trade. It's the committee on trade. It meets at least qu

International Trade committee  You make a point that they support the negotiations in general, but the devil is in the details. That's true of all trade negotiations. The fact is that I just came from two hours of sitting around a table like this with all the provinces to debrief them on what happened at the

International Trade committee  Well, Canada cannot prevent Canadian firms from taking advantage of low-cost services—call centres, or software development, or other kinds of services—in other countries. If it's available to them, that helps them remain globally competitive, because that's what their competitor

International Trade committee  You hear a lot of different numbers, but in India they're all big numbers—

International Trade committee  —because if you multiply anything by 1.22 billion people, it's a big number. I've heard that anywhere between 250 million and 300 million people are in what India refers to as the middle class. I'm not entirely sure it's the same definition as ours, but affluent consumers number

International Trade committee  First, with respect to the Indian diaspora in Canada, it is a tremendous asset, particularly in a market where relationships matter. In India, you have to invest a lot in the relationship before you get the deal, and you need relationships to be able to navigate in that market. I

International Trade committee  My answer would be, principally outside the CEPA; the government's strategy to build a relationship with India involves using all of the tools in the tool box. CEPA is only one of them. The foreign investment protection agreement is one. The social security agreement is one. The

International Trade committee  No, but perhaps my colleague, Luc Santerre, might be able to.

International Trade committee  Well, I think there are many obstacles. The first is that it's far away. If you are exporting a hard good, the logistical problem and the cost of getting your good to the Indian market plays a role. There's the consumer in India: very price-conscious; very concerned about certa

International Trade committee  Yes. That's why we do them.

International Trade committee  McCain is a very interesting example of how to work in the Indian market. Number one, they spent six years researching exactly what variety of potato would grow best in the regions of India, recruiting local farmers and training them in how to farm those potatoes for McCain so th

International Trade committee  No, not at this time, neither potatoes nor frozen french fries.

International Trade committee  I assure you that I speak on behalf of that potato.