International Trade committee  Thank you. I am in Halifax because we are away at our first trade accelerator program on the east coast today. Our entire focus is on convincing companies that they should look at trade internationally. We also want to get them to diversify markets, because it's uncomfortable b

International Trade committee  We've done some work with some of the entertainment organizations in the city of Toronto. One of the things they point out is that we don't actually want to be the place where people come to rent a room to film something at their whim and when they want to. What we need to do i

International Trade committee  We see opportunity in supporting the industry in that way through funding, and in particular on the education side in developing the talent, in helping the colleges and universities put together programs that actually produce this, and not having to go and import the talent itsel

International Trade committee  Yes, I agree with the statement you've made. FDI is an important aspect, and certainly most regional organizations, municipalities and so on are looking to attract investment. It's one of the ways they promote jobs and prosperity for their regions. I also believe that the long-t

International Trade committee  Yes, it's a natural progression. I believe that Ms. Anderson mentioned that 95% of the trade accelerator program graduate companies in Vancouver start by tackling the States. Then as they grow their business, they start to look to foreign markets further afield. I mentioned the

International Trade committee  Our resources are our experience working with thousands of SMEs in the Toronto region and across Canada and with the members of our board of trade in Toronto, and the sense that they have that.... Again, I don't want to say that CUSMA is the perfect agreement that's going to solv

International Trade committee  I regret that I am not able to answer that. I'm sorry. I don't have that information.

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely. We'd be happy to do that.

International Trade committee  I don't have a lot of the details with me, but we submitted a proposal to the government. They're ones that are low yield, in the sense that they are of little use, and they're in the low percentages, 1% and so on. They're not necessarily tied to free trade agreements. The chal

International Trade committee  [Technical difficulty—Editor] emerging market sectors.

International Trade committee  They're mostly with other countries. This is a unilateral removal of tariffs, regardless of whether or not we have an FTA.

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, and I really apologize. but I don't, off the top of my head. I can tell you that they're not CETA, CPTPP or NAFTA countries.

International Trade committee  That's all I know.

International Trade committee  Our point is not to wait for a free trade agreement on these ones that don't yield enough to the government but that cost our companies a lot, if they're exporting from Africa, for instance, to the Middle East, and so on.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to express our thanks to the Standing Committee on International Trade for allowing us to address you today. My name is Leigh Smout. I'm the executive director of the World Trade Centre Toronto at the Toronto Region Board of Trade. I'd like