International Trade committee  You mentioned infrastructure, but in terms of innovation, the government has supported the National Optics Institute, the INO.

International Trade committee  That's right. In the case of optics-photonics, nearly 100 per cent of sales are outside the country, in Asia, in particular. Actually, they are selling pieces of something, so for the manufacturing sector, that is very good for the region. This is, indeed, innovation. There are

International Trade committee  For our part, we do an enormous amount of work to raise awareness of foreign markets, because Quebec, and, ultimately, Canada, are too small a market, in a context of globalization. Recently, Simons, which is a major retailer, explained the issues involved in globalization, parti

International Trade committee  On the question of the exporting process, 97 per cent of information transfers are not to small businesses. The big corporations have internal resources to work on this way of exporting, but SMEs do not have these internal competencies and resources. We are often told that this c

International Trade committee  For SMEs and what causes problems for them, there is theory and there is practice. We hear that exporting is not a problem. However, people who are on the ground, every day, tell us that customs duties on the order of 30 per cent prevent them from exporting to certain markets. Wh

International Trade committee  In addition, Québec International works in the strong industries, as we said a little earlier. In Quebec City, however, there are also the insurance, financial and tourism industries. We talked about the scarcity of jobs, earlier. That affects all areas, not just high value-added

International Trade committee  Good morning. Thank you very much for your invitation. I would also like to thank the committee members for coming to meet with us in Quebec. It is very much appreciated. The Québec Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the second oldest chamber of commerce in Canada, after Halif