International Trade committee  Related to the auto sector?

International Trade committee  The concerns we had heard were that markets in Malaysia and Australia are not accessible to Canadian vehicle manufacturers to benefit from the tariff reduction. In other words, in a country like Malaysia, that has, I believe, a 30% automobile tariff, if a Canadian vehicle manufac

International Trade committee  We did try to change it but the problem was from the outset we agreed to these rules that we would not reopen the text. No other party would agree to reopen and renegotiating text because if you started to do that, all the text that had been carefully negotiated and agreed to wou

International Trade committee  Not necessarily. We haven't clarified that point yet. At present—

International Trade committee  We haven't established that yet.

International Trade committee  No. We're starting this summer. We have a meeting to begin the process to finalize what the frameworks, rules, and procedures will be for future accessions, but we did not finalize that.

International Trade committee  Our focus is on bringing the existent agreement into force among the 11 parties. By the time the agreement enters into force, we will have concluded our discussions.

International Trade committee  No, not necessarily. We're setting up the rules for engaging with other countries, but we won't necessarily have to return to Parliament for approval of those rules and procedures.

International Trade committee  We do have a say, because once this agreement enters into force, accession decisions have to be agreed to by consensus. Thus, Canada—

International Trade committee  The Government of Canada will have a say.

International Trade committee  I can't preclude that. I'm looking at various scenarios right now where the countries that have expressed interest in joining are countries such as the United Kingdom, Colombia, Thailand, and Indonesia. With certain countries or economies such as Taiwan, they've expressed an init

International Trade committee  I'm not an economist either, but I think if you look at such a significant increase to our GDP, depending on the sector, it would typically imply job gains.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. As indicated earlier, we will benefit from what we call a first-mover advantage, particularly in the Japanese and other markets, to get a foothold in areas in agricultural sectors for products like beef, pork, and grains. This is a market that we have not been able to

International Trade committee  Absolutely. That's our feeling. Over the last, I would say, two years or so, we have been trying to advance our progressive trade agenda. It has not been easy. Some parties feel that progressive issues, although important, don't rest in trade agreements. They are not open-minded

International Trade committee  I think the initial reaction, to be fair, was that Canada was bringing new issues to the table. We agreed that we wouldn't reopen the text and that we wouldn't reopen existing chapters or add new chapters. I think we were able to make certain progress in advancing our progressiv