International Trade committee  I'm familiar with that argument, and I've never understood it, because I don't know what I'd do with it, all right? One of the indicators that you might use—and perhaps you cited it or applied it—is a rising gap between rich and poor, rising indicators of inequality. One of the t

International Trade committee  Yes, it is, and the answer is no.

International Trade committee  No, I do not agree.

International Trade committee  One of the dangers in dealing with trade policy or any other area of public policy is if you consider it to be the be-all and end-all. Trade and trade policy is not an objective in itself; what we're trying to achieve is economic performance. The IMF tells us that since we got th

International Trade committee  We set up our ITAC session system in 1984 based on the U.S. model. We adopted some but not all of it. It was a bit too complex for us. The U.S. model was embedded in the Trade Act of 1974, passed by the United States. The Americans tend to formalize things that we do not. It ex

International Trade committee  I'm sure it would it be wise of me not to comment on that. One assignment I had in my professional career was to spend five years in the embassy in Washington, through the days after negotiations of the free trade agreements were announced. It really is a truly remarkable politi

International Trade committee  It's a question of choice, Mr. Chairman. What happened to the Canadian economy under the impact of multilateral trade agreements, partly, but certainly under the impact of free trade with the United States, is that it was reoriented on a north-south basis and on the basis of in

International Trade committee  Thank you. Mr. Chairman, let me draw to the committee's attention a piece of news that I find amazing. It is that earlier this week a deal was reached in the United States Congress to approve four pending free trade agreements that are negotiated with changes—Peru, Panama, and s

International Trade committee  Thank you. It's interesting; when I began my career in trade policy, which is now almost forty years ago, only two departments of government counted: the Department of Finance, which controlled the tariff, and the Department of Trade and Commerce, which was the export department

International Trade committee  Thank you. I would urge against tinkering too much with the present situation. I think it works well, and it works on the basis of ad hoc solutions to specific problems. We ought to bear in mind that in some areas Canada does not have a lot of discretion. Let me give you an exa

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my thanks to the committee for the opportunity to appear. I should say at the outset that I bring to this committee on this question much of the same background as my old friend and colleague Mr. Grenier. I could not count the number of hours I spent wi