International Trade committee  I'll go back to the countries that it covers. It covers Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Chile. We're talking with some of the other associated countries, but we're not actually negotiating with them. I suppose we're participating in a negotiation with other associated state countries

International Trade committee  Absolutely. Mercosur is an opportunity for a number of reasons. We talked about its GDP, the size of the population alone. We already do a significant amount of trade. Beyond that, they are closed countries to the rest of the world. There are no G7 countries that have any FTAs w

International Trade committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here today to provide the members of the committee with an update on three trade initiatives: the Pacific Alliance, Mercosur, and the trade in services agreement. I'm joined by my colleague, Darren Smith, Canada's chief negotiator f

Government Operations committee  I would only add one thing. The GPA covers 47 countries, right? It's not just the United States; there are a number of others. It's an overall balance of concessions, so we got some access in the U.S., as mentioned by my colleague Pierre, but we also got access to a number of oth

Government Operations committee  There's no MFN on government procurement in FTAs in that sense.

Government Operations committee  That's right, so it wouldn't be “buy Canadian”; it would be “buy Canadian and European”. You could also have “buy Canadian” as long as it's not covered procurements, so again it would be in areas not covered or under thresholds.

Government Operations committee  Regional economic development is a little different. Does the trade agreement prevent it? The easy answer is it won't prevent it as long as it's not covered procurement. Other than that, it really.... I would have to ask my colleagues to answer.

Government Operations committee  If I recall correctly, it was a two-part question. First you asked about Buy American in the U.S. and if they can do that because the sub-federal is not included. Then you asked about local procurement in Canada.

Government Operations committee  For the first part of your question, that's correct. It is at the sub-federal level, and that's why they can do that and exclude us from those procurements. Under the Canada-E.U. trade agreement, CETA, we did cover the sub-federal level. As long as it is a covered procurement—if

Government Operations committee  We only have set-asides for small businesses and minority-owned businesses. These are in all of our FTAs, except for CETA. The aboriginal set-aside is in all of our FTAs. There are only the two.

Government Operations committee  Yes, that's correct.

Government Operations committee  I think that border adjustments on carbon are just outside the scope of what we do on procurement. It's not a procurement-related question.

Government Operations committee  Sorry, how would you do...? Can you repeat the question?

Government Operations committee  There is no set-aside in CETA for the SMEs.

Government Operations committee  There is one for aboriginal businesses, but not for SMEs. The threshold for coverage of procurements in CETA is much higher than in other FTAs. The threshold for CETA is $221,000, which is significantly higher than in our other free trade agreements.