SINT Committee Meeting

37th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION

Subcommittee on International Trade, Trade Disputes and Investment of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade

EVIDENCE

CONTENTS

Thursday, November 28, 2002

¿

0940

The Clerk of the Committee

Mr. Pat O'Brien (London—Fanshawe, Lib.)

The Clerk

The Chair (Mr. Mac Harb (Ottawa Centre, Lib.))

Mr. Pat O'Brien

The Chair

Mr. Bob Speller (Haldimand—Norfolk—Brant, Lib.)

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron (Verchères—Les-Patriotes, BQ)

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

¿

0945

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Pat O'Brien

The Chair

Mr. Pat O'Brien

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

Mr. Pat O'Brien

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

Mr. Pat O'Brien

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Bob Speller

¿

0950

The Chair

Mr. Bob Speller

The Chair

Mr. Mark Eyking (Sydney—Victoria, Lib.)

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Stéphane Bergeron

The Chair

Mr. Peter Berg (Committee Researcher)

The Chair

Mr. Peter Berg

Mr. Bob Speller

Mr. Pat O'Brien

Mr. Peter Berg

Mr. Bob Speller

The Chair

Mr. Bill Casey (Cumberland—Colchester, PC)

The Chair

Mr. Bill Casey

The Chair

Mr. Bob Speller

Mr. Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Canadian Alliance)

The Chair

---

CANADA

Subcommittee on International Trade, Trade Disputes and Investment of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade

---

NUMBER 001

l

2nd SESSION

l

37th PARLIAMENT

---

EVIDENCE

Thursday, November 28, 2002

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

¿  (0940)  

[English]

    The Clerk of the Committee: Order. Honourable members, I see a quorum. Our first order of business is the election of the chair. I'm prepared to take motions to that effect.

    Mr. O'Brien.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien (London—Fanshawe, Lib.): I move, for chair of the committee, Mac Harb.

    The Clerk: Proposed, Mr. Harb as chair of the committee.

    (Motion agreed to)

    The Clerk: I declare Mr. Harb the elected chair, and invite him to take the chair.

    The Chair (Mr. Mac Harb (Ottawa Centre, Lib.)): Thank you.

    Mr. O'Brien.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien: I move Monsieur Bergeron for opposition vice-chair.

    (Motion agreed to)

    The Chair: Do you want a vice-chair from the government?

    An hon. member: Sure.

    Mr. Bob Speller (Haldimand—Norfolk—Brant, Lib.): I move Mark Eyking for vice-chair.

    (Motion agreed to)

    The Chair: A third vice-chair...? We can have a third one, if you want. This is a subcommittee.

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron (Verchères—Les-Patriotes, BQ): That's enough.

    The Chair: We have some procedural motions, so maybe each member can move one. These are similar to the ones we had the last time.

[Translation]

It is the same motion as the last time.

    Mr. Bergeron, could you move the first motion?

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: I move that the chairman be authorized to hold meetings and hear witnesses in the absence of a quorum, as long as at least three committee members are present, including one member of the opposition.

[English]

     (Motion agreed to)

    The Chair: Deuxième motion, monsieur Bergeron.

[Translation]

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: I certainly do not want to monopolize the tabling of motions, but if you twist my arm, Mr. Chairman, I move that 10 minutes be allocated to witnesses to make their presentation and that during the questioning of witnesses, each member be given 10 minutes, at the chairman's discretion.

    (The motion is carried)

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: Mr. Chairman, I presume the current practice is to alternate speakers based on the order in which committee members around the table submit their name.

    The Chair: The opposition starts and government members continue or vice versa, depending on the circumstances.

    Thank you very much.

[English]

     Monsieur Bergeron.

[Translation]

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: Mr. Chairman, is the sub-committee bound by the decisions made by the full committee, when it comes to handing out documents in both official languages, for example?

    The Chair: As far as official languages are concerned, it is the same thing as in the full committee. As for notices of motion to the sub-committee, we have a little flexibility because we work in a non-partisan way. If we start to have problems, we will set some rules. But for the time being, everything is running smoothly.

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: Fine.

[English]

    The Chair: Colleagues, after we did the Canada-Latin America studies, we had some informal discussions with all members about the idea of doing an Asia-Pacific study. We felt, at the time, that it fit very well with the overall agenda of the committee and the House, which was to improve on the way we do our trade with the rest of the world, with the focus on diversifying trade, increasing the pie, and so on.

    So we did the Canada-Europe study, the World Trade Organization study, and the Canada-Latin America study. We informally thought that we would do the Canada-Asia Pacific study. There have been a number of suggestions concerning it.

    I wanted to put before you the countries I think would be important to consider, if we were to do such a study--India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, and South Korea. From a strategic point of view, these are the six countries that seem to be very important to Canada, in terms of increasing the quantity of trade, as well as improving the economic relations between Canada and these countries.

    If you think this is a good start for us, I guess what we will have to do is to move to the next step, and to have some sort of a briefing with the department, develop a list of witnesses to appear before the committees, and set up some sort of a strategy for the study. Fortunately--and unfortunately--it's going to take a little bit of time for members of the committees to travel, but I think we can make it happen some time in the spring. As a result of this, we'll have a chance to hear from witnesses between now and then, and to prepare ourselves. So the fact-finding mission will take place towards the end of the trip, as we did with the Canada-Europe and Canada-Latin America studies.

    If you are in agreement with this, I think we will have to authorize or direct our research staff to start doing some of the legwork between now and January, with the objective of having a meeting with the department sometime toward the last week of January. They can come in and brief us, and give us some ideas and suggestions.

    If this is okay with you, then probably what we need is a formal motion to this effect, so we can take it to the main committee—along with a budget—while the staff prepares some of the necessary work for us.

    We'll not be able to travel in 2002. It will have to take place in 2003, after March 31, because there is no money left in the account for committee travels. So it's understood that it will probably take place sometime after April—hopefully before the end of May, but at least sometime in April, or May.

    May I have a motion to move ahead with the studies? With a little bit of flexibility, we may add or subtract one country, or may add two countries. Some of you might be interested in looking at additional countries, and we can do that.

    Monsieur Bergeron.

¿  (0945)  

[Translation]

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: Mr. Chairman, I apologize for interrupting you during your presentation, but I see that in the proposal to travel to China, the plan is to visit Beijing. May I suggest that from an economic perspective Shanghai and Hong-Kong could be considered required destinations? Beijing may be the political capital, but Shanghai and Hong-Kong are more important economically.

    The Chair: That is a good idea. We will give it some thought...

[English]

    Mr. O'Brien.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien: I think I understand what Mr. Bergeron is getting at. But I would just caution that APEC was in Shanghai a year ago, so it's had a lot of visitors from Canada. I was there, standing in for Minister Pettigrew, heading up the delegation, when the trade ministers were there a year ago in June.

    I think, Bob, you were there recently as well.

    I think that word would get out about a trip like this. It might send a wrong message not to go to Beijing, if we can fit in one of the other places in China as well.

    The Chair: We could split the committee there.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien: Fine. I think it's an important message to visit--

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: I'm not saying that we shouldn't go to Beijing.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien: Oh, it's somewhere as well....

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: Yes, in addition.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien: D'accord.

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: We should go to Beijing.

    The Chair: Mr. Speller.

    Mr. Bob Speller: Just quickly, I think we need to spend a night in Canberra. We can't just go into the capital of Australia and fly out the same day.

¿  (0950)  

    The Chair: No. We're just initially putting the countries before the committee.

    Mr. Bob Speller: No, no, I know; we're just throwing stuff in. We have plenty of time to work on it.

    The Chair: Yes.

    Mr. Eyking.

    Mr. Mark Eyking (Sydney—Victoria, Lib.): Are there any times you're looking at here, roughly? Would it be in April, the week of...?

    The Chair: As soon as we have a little better idea in terms of what's involved, we'll be back and then we'll talk about the exact time. At this point, the key thing for us is to approve the countries we want to go to. We'll move on to the next step.

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: I think one week is not realistic.

    The Chair: No, it's going to be at least two and a half weeks, that's for sure, if not three weeks.

    Is there any further discussion on this?

    May I have a motion, Monsieur Bergeron?

[Translation]

    Mr. Stéphane Bergeron: Since I am your mover of choice today, Mr. Chairman, I can certainly move the motion.

    ( Motion carried)

[English]

    The Chair: Thank you very much.

    With this we will officially notify the department. Then we will arrange for a briefing toward the end of January. And our research staff will have to start doing some of the legwork.

    Mr. Berg, you have a comment.

    Mr. Peter Berg (Committee Researcher): Yes. I just wanted to ask the members, how about if we get to come not only the officials from DFAIT but also the Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific?

    The Chair: Good idea.

    Mr. Peter Berg: Or we could try for Mr. Pettigrew, if you want, but I think it's Mr. Kilgour who is Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific.

    Mr. Bob Speller: I think we need Mr. Pettigrew here.

    Mr. Pat O'Brien: I think the minister would be happy to come here.

    Mr. Peter Berg: So both or just the minister?

    Mr. Bob Speller: Both.

    The Chair: Mr. Casey.

    Mr. Bill Casey (Cumberland—Colchester, PC): I think part of our focus should be the impact of the lifting of the tariffs for the garment industry and the textile industry.

    The Chair: Obviously this is one item where the decision has already been made to a large extent. By the time we go there, the only country that will be involved in that element would be probably Bangladesh between now and 2005. My fear is that if we want to look at if from a sectorial point of view, it might dilute what it is we are really trying to do. Obviously this will be one of the many things we will look at, in a sense. But I fear if we want to start selecting specific types of sectors, we might run into some difficulties.

    But if you have a specific interest in it, of course we'll try to accommodate that.

    Mr. Bill Casey: I do.

    The Chair: Okay.

    Mr. Casson is sick. We are honoured to have Monsieur Kenney with us as a replacement, and through him the committee will pass along our best wishes to Mr. Casson. We wish him a speedy recovery.

    Are there any other comments, colleagues?

    Mr. Bob Speller: Jason, is he really sick or is he just calling in sick today?

    Mr. Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Canadian Alliance): He's not fake sick; I just don't know how sick he is.

    The Chair: We will ask the clerk to prepare a budget for the travel as well as for other expenses in relation to the study. Then we will do our report to the main committee.

    Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.