International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  You have to understand that when you look at TPP, the status quo is not an option. You're either in or you're out. Essentially, when you analyze the drivers of your decision, you have to look at the difference between the two scenarios. Usually the status quo is an option when

International Trade committee  TPP is a bit different because it encompasses major trade partners, i.e., the U.S. and Mexico, so there's a major impact on existing preferences. That's why, essentially, you have to look at both scenarios.

International Trade committee  I'd say it's not for me to answer. I think it's not related to trade policy. You're essentially talking about the rise of corporate power in the world economy. Market power can be exercised under any trade policy environment, so it's a much wider concern than what we are talking

International Trade committee  There's essentially always a danger associated with market power.

International Trade committee  No, on the contrary, trade policy provides a level playing field for all players whether they're small or large. In that sense, trade policy is conducive to a better functioning of markets and a reduction in market power. Usually trade policy is very pro-competition.

International Trade committee  Your question is more a philosophical one than an economic one, but indeed essentially the old principle of trade policy is based on the capacity of markets to adapt to changes. Of course in some cases, it could warrant government intervention if there are externalities that the

International Trade committee  We're using slightly different models, with slightly different assumptions, leading to slightly different results. When it comes to the assumptions, we try to be as balanced as we can when we do our own simulation. We don't have an agenda when we do our simulation. We're essenti

International Trade committee  No, we didn't model it.

International Trade committee  We don't explicitly model the labour market when we do a trade policy assessment. Essentially, the focus of our analysis is on the reallocation of resources within the economy. We start with a specific level of employment, which is the current level of employment, and there is so

International Trade committee  —of jobs. Usually since trade policy leads to reallocation of resources, the impact on aggregate employment is relatively small.

International Trade committee  There's a limit to what the model can do. What we tried to do is to assess the impact of the most significant changes. When we're talking about trade policy and we're in an environment where tariffs are low, you cannot expect major swings and trade flows, and economic activity—

International Trade committee  —so we're talking about marginal changes to the overall trade environment. In these circumstances rarely do trade policy initiatives generate big bangs.

International Trade committee  We're always talking about incremental changes.

International Trade committee  The Tufts University model is different. It starts with the projections on trade and GDP that were generated by other simulations, such as the Peterson Institute, or the C.D. Howe Institute, or ours. Then it incorporates these projections into a model that focuses on other dimens