International Trade committee  Right. That's certainly an issue that has been identified in the department and in the government, and I believe it is referred to in the report on plans and priorities. There are programs to bring small and medium-sized enterprises to export readiness and then to assist them, actually, with international business transactions.

International Trade committee  If I don't enter the debate from one side, I had better not enter the debate from the other side.

International Trade committee  Thank you. I will attempt to respond to the first and last of your questions, and David to your second and third. On the question of the effect of trade agreements on family income, I don't want to debate statistics and their relevance or accuracy, and I don't doubt in any way the statement you've made about lower family income since 1989, but I don't see how we can attribute a drop in family income since 1989 to any particular trade agreement.

International Trade committee  Yes, it has been a real challenge getting at non-tariff barriers in the WTO, and partly just because of the extremely technical nature of those issues among 149, about to be 150, members of the organization. I think Monsieur Cardin referred to differing levels of development among our trading partners.

International Trade committee  Yes, we certainly have hope. I think David said he was an optimist. Trade negotiators have to be optimists to be in the business, I think. Yes, there certainly is hope. There are a lot of challenges. The challenges most immediately are in the agriculture area; you know that, both in subsidies--domestic support--and market access.

International Trade committee  The dispute resolution system in international trade is really unique to international relations, because there is no other area that I'm aware of in the conduct of international relations where countries have attempted and been willing to enter into binding commitments and some form of binding resolution of those commitments.

International Trade committee  It's a very good and fundamental question. As three individual government officials, we can only answer from a trade policy approach and a trade negotiating approach. But as I said in my introductory remarks, trade policy has to begin from domestic fundamentals. We have to know that we have a productive economy and that we can compete in international markets.

International Trade committee  I think we also have to look at the resource demands and priorities of our trading partners. If we face these resource demands in Canada, a wealthy and developed country, you can imagine a small developing country in Latin America having to put practically the same resources into negotiating a trade agreement.

International Trade committee  No, I don't think there's a contradiction. I think they're mutually reinforcing. I think we want to consolidate them to the extent that we can expand opportunities for trade in North American markets and also, as Paul Robertson referred to earlier, use the North American market and the interaction of Canadian business in North America as a platform to increase competitiveness to be able to trade in the rest of the world.

International Trade committee  On your question about the competitiveness of China and India and other Asian economies and how we meet that challenge, I would go back to my introductory remarks and say the first thing we need to do is have sound domestic economic fundamentals and make sure that our businesses are operating in the healthiest economic environment possible.

International Trade committee  I'm very encouraged by your second question, that we can take the perspective that even for our most import-sensitive industries--the industries that face the largest challenges in the global marketplace--they themselves see that they have a place in international trade, that they may be able to create niche markets internationally.

International Trade committee  Yes

International Trade committee  I'm not an expert on trade promotion--I apologize--but certainly the department has such experts. I would say that I am aware that one of our challenges is to bring small and medium-sized enterprises to export readiness and to the confidence to engage in export markets. There are specific programs designed to do that.

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. I'm going to answer in English. On the first question about the issue of labour rights and labour competitiveness as it relates to trade agreements, yes, certainly labour cost factors are an element of global competitiveness and need to be taken into account in our trade and broader economic strategy, but whether labour rights can and should be negotiated directly into trade agreements is another question that in large part depends on the willingness of our trading partners to engage in such negotiations.

International Trade committee  Yes, we will make a joint presentation of about 10 minutes. It might run a little longer, with your indulgence.