International Trade committee  You seem to be implying that you can't believe in trade without a trade agreement.

International Trade committee  The old GATT had many good things in it, because in the post-war period the intention was to reduce tariffs globally, and that happened. I think by the time the WTO was established in 1995, the tariffs had been reduced absolutely dramatically from what they were in 1947 when GATT

International Trade committee  My sense is to repeat what I said before, that the terms under which these agreements have been negotiated are not ones that are favourable. If you want to go back to the NAFTA issue, I would ask what major new social programs or public programs we have initiated since NAFTA. I

International Trade committee  Well, there we are.

International Trade committee  There was something even in The Globe and Mail this morning about the fact that sugar seems to be a major factor in terms of increasing heart disease, diabetes, and so on, and that there needs to be much more regulation in terms of how much sugar.... There are many other products

International Trade committee  I did my Ph.D. a long time ago. Then I worked in various capacities. The last major thing I did before joining SFU was with the B.C. government, where I was for seven years. I've been at SFU now for the last 10 years.

International Trade committee  I was not at the time, because I was concerned about a number of issues that we've actually talked about today. I think my concerns are still valid. It's hard 20 years later to say where we might have been had we not been in NAFTA. The global economy has changed, but I think that

International Trade committee  Well, one of the things that is quite important in the way in which TRIPS was modified in 2001 with the Doha declaration was the affirmation that countries would have the right to use what are described as the “flexibilities” in TRIPS, namely, compulsory licensing under certain c

International Trade committee  On the whole area of regulatory harmonization, and there are other ways in which they are expressing it, regulatory coherence, the question is whether this is going to be down to the lowest common denominator. Is that what we are going to see here and to what extent is it going t

International Trade committee  There have been some challenges by us in the U.S. actually under existing WTO rules with regard to, say, hormone use in beef, and things of that nature. One can have different views about that, but in Europe certainly they have taken the view that they're very concerned about the

International Trade committee  The idea was that this was a technical barrier to trade. There were three different aspects of WTO agreements that were part of the challenge. This should not be something that is even possible, that we could overturn something that is so fundamental to public health based on cer

International Trade committee  Yes, and I explained that they have national negotiations—

International Trade committee  Yes. The other thing that's important to recognize is that our pharmaceutical industry—in quotation marks—is all basically foreign-owned. In Europe we're talking about countries that are negotiating on behalf of large companies that see huge benefits in terms of their balance o

International Trade committee  Let me start with the second one, the investor rights issue. There are many dimensions to it. On the whole question of the number of countries that now would be in a position to sue Canada, it would be greatly extended. Currently it's our NAFTA partners, so we're adding I think

International Trade committee  There's a lot of concern about the whole issue of packaging and marketing in terms of labelling, in terms of what people are able to find out about what's in the foods. Here, arguably, if you want to talk about Europe, their food packaging and safety legislation is stronger than