International Trade committee  Mainly the oil and gas and science and technology. They're the two main sectors that I see moving, as well as infrastructure. If they could even bring infrastructure building models, like the Canadian public-private partnership, and build those models in Brazil, that exchange of

International Trade committee  Infrastructure does not stop. Right now, they have Marcio A. Francesquine with the infrastructure forum in Brazil. That was highly successful with the Government of San Paulo. Our minister of planning, Dyogo Oliveira, was here also to talk about infrastructure. Between May 29 and

International Trade committee  I think it's a step toward that. I think once the agreement is certified it will go on by itself and people will see what's missing and try to piece that together. Once we have the first step, it will grow and if they're able to achieve the tariff changes and the harmonization, i

International Trade committee  Yes, I do see that as an important role, especially because Mercosur has free trade agreements with other countries as well, like New Zealand and Israel, and I believe, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Egypt. They have other free trade agreements they have to honour. I think they are

International Trade committee  I can only speak for Brazil. Right now, I'm sure everyone knows that Brazil is going through what I'm going to call a political crisis in some ways. Our past president was impeached; our past president went to jail. We have the vice-president in power now, and there will be elect

International Trade committee  If the Mercosur negotiations include harmonizations of rules and models, that would help Brazilian companies coming here a lot. Biolab actually did the opening for Biolab here, and they have a research facility here. The reason is that it's much easier and faster to get all the p

International Trade committee  Are you asking if they would increase competition between Brazilian and Canadian products in the Canadian market or in the Brazilian market?

International Trade committee  I'm going to talk from my perspective. I have a company. We do international business development. We work a lot with the Canadian government doing trade missions to Brazil, so I've personally dealt with over 200 companies entering the market in Brazil. The big problem here is th

International Trade committee  I do believe that. I believe Canada has great products, products that are differentiated from those in the Brazilian market. Brazilians are really big on technology, and Canada has a lot to offer that way. Everything that's new is a big thing for Brazilians. People like to keep

International Trade committee  That is a very good point. I've given that a lot of thought, especially when you come to conflict resolution. That can be a problem. The way Mercosur works is that they have an agreement and each country has to ratify their agreement. For example, in Brazil a lot of the negotiati

International Trade committee  Exactly. I believe so. In conflict resolution they are all different so I would look at that for each country.

International Trade committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, fellow panellists, and members of this committee, on behalf of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce and our president, Mr. Marcelo Sarkis, we are honoured to participate in this important panel, to discuss the potential Canada-Mercosur free trade agreement