International Trade committee  We have 250 employees.

International Trade committee  It's primarily in North America. We export quite a bit to the U.S., and some of our industrial cables end up in Latin America and the Caribbean.

International Trade committee  Definitely. We hope it will open some doors. We actually investigated that prior to CUSMA. However, we hope that this agreement will make it that much easier, and as we grow, participate with Export Development Canada into the U.S. We are told that Canadian products are very high

International Trade committee  Electrical power cables in Canada have to be sold as meeting a CSA standard, basically for safety and quality. In the U.S. it's UL, or Underwriters Laboratories, which does those specs. We participate with the Standards Council of Canada and our industry federations. We sit on st

International Trade committee  We don't believe so. There's a good domestic market for aluminum, and we actually have copper smelted in Montreal that we buy. Steel, galvanized steel used in cable, is not available in Canada and we have had.... In the tariffs that we had a couple of years ago there was an issue

International Trade committee  No, it would be the same for all of our competitors. It would be a level playing field.

International Trade committee  Well, we make industrial and commercial cables. We do not make residential cables. Obviously, commercial construction in the metropolitan areas is very strong. We've established seven warehouses in the U.S. that we ship to customers from, covering mostly the eastern seaboard down

International Trade committee  Our only concern is that it's an opportunity for us if Canada participates as an equal partner, but Mexico is an untapped market for us.

International Trade committee  We don't expect it to, no.

International Trade committee  Well, the issue we have, Mr. Carrie, is that definitely we'd want to see any rules enforced, but first we'd want to see what the rules were. Right now we don't know how well the standards are being met on cables that are made to CSA. They come in with a CSA logo printed on them,

International Trade committee  We couldn't say that they're counterfeit. We're concerned, but that's kind of libellous, I guess, for us to say of another manufacturer. We're worried about the cost of their raw materials and the cost of the electricity they've used.

International Trade committee  We do not have a direct issue with the wording of the agreement. Again, our industry has enjoyed relatively free trade for decades. Our issue is that in this agreement [Technical difficulty—Editor] really just concerns that Canada is not a full partner. If we don't have good tr

International Trade committee  That's exactly what's happening.

International Trade committee  It's both. We are actively working with our industry association on trade fairness, which is not related to the free trade agreement. The issue is there's so little of a domestic manufacturing base left. We're a small company in Brockville. The rest of the people are owned out o

International Trade committee  Canada has an advantage because a very large portion of the North American aluminum is actually smelted in Canada. There is a domestic industry. There are other plants that make aluminum cable in Canada, but they've been bought by Italian or French companies. There is definitely