:
Before we get into our meeting, there are a couple of items of business I'd like to take care of. One is that I need approval for the budget to go on a study of Mercosur.
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: The second thing is that we have gotten notification that we're going to be travelling to Washington, barring some unforeseeable circumstances. I think all parties have figured out who is going. This is just to let you know.
That's all I have for business. We're going to go right to our study.
As you know, our committee is very busy with all the various trade agreements we have around the world. Right now we are embarking on a new study. It's a study of potential trade with Mercosur. The Mercosur countries are four: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. That's 260 million people. They have a GDP together of $2.4 trillion.
This is a great opportunity for us to look at. We're going to have four meetings on this over the next few weeks. Today we're fortunate to have our first two witnesses with us. We have witnesses from the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce and a witness from the Canadian Steel Producers Association.
If this is your first time in front of our committee, note that we usually like to keep the presentations fairly tight so that we have lots of opportunity for dialogue with MPs.
Without further ado I'm going to ask the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Paola Saad, to address us.
You're the first to come before our committee on Mercosur, so welcome. You have the floor.
Mr. Chair, fellow panellists, and members of this committee, on behalf of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce and our president, Mr. Marcelo Sarkis, we are honoured to participate in this important panel, to discuss the potential Canada-Mercosur free trade agreement. As you may know, my name is Paola Saad, and I am currently the vice-president of the BCCC.
Our chamber has been in existence since 1973. Our mission is to strengthen and develop links between Brazil and Canada, chiefly in trade and investment. The chamber's members include Canadian organizations that invest and trade in Brazil, as well as Brazilian companies with a presence in Canada. Our membership ranges from multinationals to small and medium-sized businesses, active in many sectors, mirroring the strategic sectors of the bilateral trade between Canada and Brazil.
In terms of Canada's trade diversification strategy, pursuing a comprehensive trade agenda with Mercosur would allow access to a wider market, increase trade for Canadian goods and services, and allow for further knowledge sharing. It would also mean that 85% of Canada's trade would be covered by trade agreements.
Mercosur is the fourth-largest trading bloc in the world and represents 260 million people and a GDP of $3 trillion. Currently, bilateral trade represents $8.9 billion, of which over half is between Brazil and Canada alone. We can definitely do better. If we look at trade with the Pacific Alliance grouping of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile, that's $48 billion a year. These four countries already have FTAs with Canada.
Brazil is the largest economy and market in South America, with a population of 207 million people, largely composed of middle-class consumers.
In our view, a Canada-Mercosur agreement would certainly enhance trade and open the door for more opportunities between both parties. Historically, Canada and Brazil have had long-standing relations in terms of business, and collaboration in a range of sectors, including health care, mining, infrastructure, agriculture, innovation, education, and defence, among others. We expect a Canada-Mercosur FTA would lead to a harmonization of rules and models in these key industries as well, which is a problem.
In 2015, Brazil was the seventh most important source of foreign direct investment into Canada, with $19.7 billion in investment. Canada has a bilateral science and technology agreement with only five countries in the world, and Brazil is one of them. Since 2011, they have established a joint committee on science and technology to discuss common areas of interest, including developments in clean technology, nanotech, and marine technology, among others. Even more recently, as a part of this venture, Canada and Brazil entered an aerospace agreement between Airship do Brasil and Buoyant Aircraft Systems International. A Canada-Mercosur free trade agreement would open the door to further such co-operation and increase knowledge sharing. There is also an opportunity to bring both countries closer in intellectual property rights, with the potential of Canada and Mercosur to agree on a patent prosecution highway, or PPH.
Since last year, the BCCC has had the honour of participating in round table discussions regarding a potential Canada-Mercosur agreement, including two meetings with the honourable . One was this year, actually. Based on those conversations and the opinion of our members, some of the main barriers in trading with Brazil that we currently face are the high taxation rates, both internal and external, labour laws, and significant bureaucracy, which is an understatement. Certification requirements are also a problem. All these are items that we look forward to addressing in the Mercosur free trade agreement and during the negotiations to further allow for Canadian businesses to increase their commerce with Brazil.
We see the movement of goods, information, money, and people as key. Canada is the country of choice for Brazilians studying abroad. This exchange promotes Canadian values of tolerance, striving for excellence, doing the right thing, and strength through diversity. Let's expand this to all the Mercosur countries.
Diversifying the marketplace stabilizes our economies. Both the Canadian government and the Brazilian government are assertively promoting exports to their businesses.
Therefore, let's get on with the negotiations. Yes, let's start at home, sharing with Canadians the potential for business and social improvement. We believe in good, fair, free trade that can lead to exciting new benefits for Canada and the Mercosur bloc. We look forward to what the future brings.
The BCCC will continue to reach out to its members, partners, and entities doing business between Brazil and Canada and consult on the main challenges, the main opportunities, and how a place at the Mercosur table would benefit the parties. In addition, the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce remains entirely committed to continue strengthening ties between Canada, Brazil, and Mercosur, and we are here at your disposal.
Thank you.
Good morning to the honourable members of the committee, and thank you, as always, for the opportunity to present today on behalf of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, as this committee undertakes its important task of studying the implications of a potential Canada-Mercosur free trade agreement.
CSPA is the voice of Canada's $14-billion primary steel production industry. Our producers are integral to automotive, energy, construction, and other vital industrial supply chains in Canada, producing roughly 13 million tonnes of primary steel and an additional one million tonnes of steel pipe and tube on an annual basis. This activity employs directly 22,000 Canadians, while supporting an additional 100,000 jobs indirectly.
As an organization the CSPA supports open and fair trade. We appreciate the value of a diversified trade portfolio and understand the importance of free trade agreements to Canada's economic future.
With that in mind, we also believe that the growth of and investment in advanced manufacturing in Canada should be a key consideration in the negotiation and ratification of any free trade agreement. Successful agreements should enhance employment opportunities while ensuring Canadian enterprises retain the ability to compete fairly in domestic markets; promote fair, open, and mutually beneficial trade; facilitate the global export of high-quality Canadian products; and promote Canadian socio-economic values, including strong environmental and health and safety standards.
To ensure that a given agreement has the best chance to benefit Canadians, we believe that any negotiation in which Canada is engaged should be informed by open consultation with affected industries and rooted in the following principles: the preservation of reciprocal, market-based trade with strong provisions to mitigate unfairly traded imports; the encouragement of foreign direct investment in Canada; the enhancement of domestic supply chain relationships; the promotion of the overall economic interests of Canadian manufacturers; and effective and enforceable controls for state-owned enterprises and/or currency manipulation.
Specific to Mercosur, the CSPA would like to highlight considerations for Canada's steel industry, which we think the Government of Canada should be mindful of during this negotiation. First, there is virtually no primary steel and very few steel-containing goods currently exported from Canada to Mercosur countries. This is unlikely to change in the context of a free trade agreement. We don't expect any noticeable increase and would in fact note that there are presently Canadian International Trade Tribunal anti-dumping remedies in place on certain Mercosur countries relating to imports on hot rolled carbon steel, alloy steel sheet, steel strips, and steel plate.
We would also note that there exists real potential for market share erosion within the steel-using community in Canada, particularly as it relates to those involved with automotive manufacturing and the makers of energy, pipe, and tubular goods, as the result of an agreement with Mercosur.
To mitigate these exposures the CSPA would propose a parallel domestic policy implementation process to blunt potential impacts of a Canada-Mercosur agreement on our sector. These would include the continued improvement of Canada's trade remedy system, and increased enhanced resources for investigation and enforcement at the CBSA to properly ensure that Canadian companies and workers are protected from harms associated with dumped and subsidized goods.
The fundamental principle of two-way gains from free trade agreements is founded on market-based trade, and the contravention of WTO rules through product dumping and subsidization undermines those goals. This behaviour distorts markets, displaces domestic production, and undermines Canadian supply chain opportunities.
An effective trade remedy system needs to detect unfair trade activity and engage, as appropriate, the required tools to enforce measures already in place, accurately guide those investigations, and discourage circumvention. There should be no free ride for dumped products through free trade agreements, and no trade agreement should ever include measures that would weaken the trade remedy system in Canada.
I would also note the importance of the development of government procurement guidelines that account for greenhouse gas emissions, the state of sustainable development principles, and overall respect for the environment. Greater use of Canadian steel in government procurement programs significantly reduces the carbon footprint associated with those projects. The steel in Canada is by far the cleanest steel for use in the country in terms of a full life-cycle GHG analysis.
As such, domestic preferences for Canadian steel products would reduce global GHG emissions while increasing demand for our domestic steel products and offsetting potentially increased competition from Mercosur producers.
Finally, we would also suggest the inclusion in the final agreement of a broad, enforceable discipline or a series of disciplines on state-owned enterprises, which would discourage government ownership of entities that operate in a commercial context, require a state-owned enterprise to operate according to commercial considerations, prohibit those enterprises from discrimination against foreign suppliers, restrict the ability of SOEs to give or receive subsidies, and recognize that any subsidies that may be provided to SOEs are actionable and subject to countervailing measures.
Finally, I would also note from a Canadian steel perspective, the overarching importance of the preservation and modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That agreement and the ongoing negotiations as relates to the future of that agreement are of overwhelming importance to our industry and certainly more impactful to the Canadian economy than a potential Mercosur agreement. In engaging in any additional international negotiations at this time, the Government of Canada should be especially mindful of the consequences in the NAFTA context and should avoid any discussions or activities that would potentially undermine or negatively affect in any way those vital negotiations.
In closing, thank you again to the committee for the opportunity this morning. I would be happy, of course, to answer any questions you may have.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank both of you for being here.
I come from Oshawa. Right next door to me is Gerdau Ameristeel. It's wonderful to have both of you here because it gives a little bit of perspective on the industry. These are good quality jobs for Canadians.
You spoke about some of the challenges, such as the dumping issues, things along those lines. Could you give us an idea on competitiveness and domestic policy? One of the things that was brought up was infrastructure. We have public infrastructure, but we also have private infrastructure, things like pipelines, which are, of course, made of steel. In the last couple of years we've had a horrible situation where foreign direct investment, because of domestic policy, something like $87 billion has been lost for pipeline projects. This would directly benefit Canadian jobs and the Canadian economy.
I have spoken to your colleagues or friends at Gerdau, and there is a bit of frustration on how domestic policy affects our ability to compete internationally. Gerdau had the ridiculous situation where they shut down an afternoon shift because the cost of electricity made it very expensive for them to do business.
Can you comment on what the Canadian government could do domestically, through policy or things we could encourage here for domestic use, that would help increase your volume and your competitiveness so that, as we move toward more open markets, Canada's steel could have that competitive edge, instead of worrying about not being able to compete?
Who would like to start on that?
:
I'll take a shot at it.
Gerdau's a great example. I believe Gerdau is the largest volume recycler in Canada, turning scrap steel and used automobiles into new product that is specifically used for infrastructure. I mentioned the benefit that would be associated with that. Gerdau, I should also mention, operates in Selkirk, Manitoba, and Cambridge. It's not just Whitby, although their largest facility is in Whitby. I think that they would be one of the more direct beneficiaries.
If the Government of Canada were to take a look at having a full life-cycle analysis of GHG built into its sourcing for infrastructure projects or built into the sourcing for infrastructure projects that are just funding through provincial governments. Sometimes that funding is passed through, but I don't think that obviates the responsibility to make sure that the inputs are responsibly sourced. I think that would be a tremendous help for them. It also makes a lot of sense from an environmental perspective. If we are concentrating on building green infrastructure in Canada, we should make sure the inputs associated with that infrastructure are green.
You mentioned pipelines. Evraz, which is out in my hometown of Regina, has been building a large diameter line pipe for those projects for a long time in a very environmentally responsible manner using recycled steel from across western Canada. They're literally getting used farm implements out of yards, melting them down, and turning them into extraordinarily safe, high-quality, very advanced pipe that is providing a lot of really excellent employment in Regina, Saskatchewan.
I think those are both really good news stories and very environmentally responsible narratives.
I know how our producers behave and how conscious they are about these things. As an industry, that's something we probably need to do a better job of featuring, but we'd certainly appreciate a government commitment, on the infrastructure front, to make sure that this would be policy that would be carried through.
:
It makes me really proud to have helped them enter the market. I have to say that the Quebec government is doing a great job in Brazil, getting those companies to enter the market and supporting them.
A Canadian company did all the flooring for the subway in Sao Paulo, for example. I did the trains and trail trade show. I'm actually very proud of Quebec's presence in Brazil, because they are doing well.
You could improve that through something we did with our sister chamber in Brazil. It's a road show that explains to small businesses how business works in Brazil and does cultural training for them. The French companies are closer, in many ways to Brazilians, for example, in that theirs is a Latin language and in the way they behave and in the way they think, so that's a plus for us.
Really, it's about getting the knowledge out there that there are opportunities in the markets and that the companies should not be afraid to go into such a big market. When they look at Brazil, they see a big wall and they don't know how to go over it. They don't know the resources. The Government of Quebec is doing an amazing job in doing that, but they need to do more in terms of reaching out to those companies, the SMEs, and talking to them personally. A lot of them just go into a little bubble, just sell in Canada or in the U.S., and they don't think about going abroad and the size of the market abroad.
What you can do is educate more people on the benefits of trading with the Mercosur bloc. It's the same thing that the rest of the country should do.
:
I will answer in English. I learned French in Saskatchewan.
[English]
Specific to Mercosur, I don't know that we necessarily have recent examples of currency manipulation out of those jurisdictions. I'd need to go back and take a look at how long ago that was. I think we've mentioned that there has been some instability in that region. Certainly we've seen currency manipulation for the purposes of stimulating the economy in other jurisdictions that share, I would say, a profile.
I would suggest that the reason we would like to see controls on state-owned enterprise and currency manipulation in this agreement.... We'd like to see that in any agreement. We talked about this in the context of the CPTPP. We are, as a nation, looking at the initiation of a negotiation with China, in which those kinds of controls on state-owned enterprises and currency manipulation would have to be fundamental to any kind of a deal.
Really, I think there is a continuing opportunity to find what Canada views as acceptable behaviour in these agreements and to find what it is we're prepared to tolerate. We're going to encounter such challenges in negotiations going forward, and we should really start proactively thinking about what those are going to look like.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee.
My name is Angelo DiCaro. I am a national representative and the lead trade policy researcher with Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union.
Unifor represents 315,000 workers across Canada in nearly every major sector of the economy including manufacturing, communications, resources, and services.
On behalf of our national president, Jerry Dias, I want to thank this committee for the invitation to once again appear before you and for also accommodating my participation today. There's certainly a lot to discuss regarding how a potential agreement with Mercosur fits within Canada's overall trade strategy. I will be as brief and direct as I can.
I want to make two points. The first is macroeconomic. I think it's worth noting some of the broader trends in Canada's merchandise trade with Mercosur. For starters, overall exports from Canada to Mercosur have declined over the past decade by about 26%. At the same time, there's been a sizable increase in imports from Mercosur to Canada, with imports nearly doubling in value since 2008. One of the stated objectives in proposing an FTA with Mercosur is to diversify Canada's trade and explore export opportunities away from the United States. While tactical, it's also important to acknowledge that North America is still the proverbial centre of gravity for Canada's trade policy. The lion's share of our trade is still within the NAFTA zone, and there are still many open questions for key industries in Canada—particularly in the auto sector—that are still to be resolved as part of the NAFTA renegotiation. What we don't need is Canada committing to a trade agreement in the spirit of diversification only to exacerbate excessive one-way import flows and actually do little to boost exports. I think in this case Korea is a cautionary tale for Canada.
The second point I want to make is that in the context of Mercosur, Canada has signalled its desire to advance its so-called progressive trade agenda, or PTA, with a trade partner that appears willing to engage. Even though the PTA remains a bit of an enigma to the those of us who are following it closely, the desire to do this is certainly welcome news. However, I think it's important to remember that, despite advanced thinking on progressive issues among Mercosur nations, the original conception of the customs union was entirely silent on labour and social conditions—not unlike the original NAFTA.
Any advancements that were made since its inception in 1991, particularly on labour conditions, have come in the form of structural institutions developed in the framework of the accord but not found in the accord itself. These advancements were a response to mass social unrest and public protest, and that includes the development of the 1998 social-labour declaration within Mercosur. There is strong, aspirational language within that declaration but its conditions remain non-binding and unenforceable. This has been the target of lasting criticism among many progressive organizations. It's unclear whether or not the nations of Mercosur have signalled the willingness to expand their level of ambition regarding social clauses in trade agreements. Brazil, we know, has historically been a vocal opponent of this approach.
If Mercosur's own intramarket ambitions reflect their negotiating mandate, then that would appear to be out of step with Canada's own approach in current free trade talks, notably within NAFTA and the Pacific Alliance. In fact, it would put Mercosur out of step with the level of ambition expressed by countries like Mexico, and that's quite concerning.
Canada must not misinterpret Mercosur's stated willingness to advance progressive ideas. In our view, a truly progressive approach must include, among other factors, clear and unequivocal protections on public interest regulation, full protection for the delivery of current and future public services, and strong and binding social clauses.
In closing, it's important that Canada clarify its desired outcomes and underscore its overarching principles in these Mercosur talks, and this must extend beyond matters of market access. We're glad that Canada has committed to conduct various economic and social impact assessments, but we also need those assessments done immediately, before talks start in earnest. Done independently, these will help provide a careful assessment of our total objectives to trade, and a clear articulation of our principles. This should inform our approach to Mercosur talks, whether and how we should proceed.
Thank you very much, and I'm happy to take any questions.
:
Thank you for inviting me to speak on behalf of CAFTA, the voice of Canadian agri-food exporters.
CAFTA represents the 90% of farmers who depend on trade, and producers, processors, and agri-food exporters who want to grow the economy through better and competitive access to international markets. This includes the beef, pork, meat, grains, cereals, pulses, soybeans, canola, sugar, malt, and processed food industries.
Together, our members account for 90% of Canada's agri-food exports, which in 2017 exceeded $57 billion and supported about a million jobs in rural and urban communities across the country. A significant portion of these jobs would not exist without competitive access to global markets.
Trade, as I've mentioned previously before this committee, is one of our main economic drivers, as 60% of the value of the sector is generated through exports. Over half of everything we produce is exported. That's half of our beef, 65% of our soybeans, 75% of our wheat, 70% of our pork, 90% of our canola, and 95% of our pulses. Also, 40% of our processed products get exported.
Over the last 10 years, our exports have grown by over 100%, boosting from cash receipts at the same time by 61%. This is why Canada's agri-food sector has been highlighted for its significant contribution to the economy and recognized by the advisory council on economic growth as a key sector for growth due to the sector's focus on exports. This is further represented by the ambitious goal to grow Canada's agricultural exports to $75 billion annually by 2025.
Canadian agricultural exporters generate a GDP of $95.5 billion for agriculture and food manufacturing. Food manufacturing alone is the largest manufacturing employer in Canada—60% of it is concentrated in Ontario and Quebec—with close to a quarter million jobs more than the automotive and aerospace sectors combined.
We have two priorities today. First, it's paramount that Canada ratify the CPTPP quickly, and we urge the government to implement it without delay.
CAFTA has been a strong supporter of the CPTPP and applauded the fantastic news that Canada concluded the deal and signed it last February in Chile. The CPTPP will not only provide the sector with unprecedented access to the high-value Japanese market and rapidly growing markets in Asia, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, but it will also provide a competitive advantage over the U.S. since it's not part of the agreement at this time.
The CPTPP will enter into force as soon as six countries ratify it, and it's very likely that seven members—Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Mexico—will have done this process by the end of 2018. Canada may lose a first-mover advantage if it's not in the first tranche of countries ratifying the deals, and with the uncertainties surrounding NAFTA, it's really essential for our globally competitive industry to have improved access to the markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Really, the best chance to implement the agreement quickly is to ratify it quickly.
Second, due to the importance of NAFTA to Canadian agri-food trade, CAFTA urges the government to continue working to reach a modernized agreement that will strengthen the access and competitiveness of the nation's farm and food products. In short, maintain what has been successful and modernize the deal where possible. Specifically, the agreement should not be allowed to include new tariffs, new non-tariff barriers, or any other provisions that could be used to limit trade.
In its submission, CAFTA identified several areas for improvement where NAFTA could enable further growth for specific products, such as canola, grains, meats, sugar, and sugar-containing products, among others, and in areas such as greater regulatory co-operation and dispute settlement mechanisms.
With regard to a potential Canada-Mercosur free trade agreement, we offer the following views. The agri-food industry is a major economic driver in Mercosur, and it is one of the largest agri-food exporting blocs in the world. Major agri-food competitors in the region include the U.S., Chile, China, the EU, and the Mercosur partners themselves, especially Brazil.
Canada exported $143 million in agri-food products in 2017, $117 million of which was sent to Brazil. This total has been higher in some years. For example, it was $245 million in 2013, but this is still well below a half of one per cent of our total annual agri-food exports.
Mercosur also exported $1.3 billion in agri-food to Canada in 2017, and the trade surplus has grown substantially over the past five years.
Canada actually competes on world markets with Mercosur members in many of our major exporting sectors. Those are grains, oilseeds, beef, and pork. Canada's share of agrifood exports to Mercosur countries is relatively small. Canada is actually the 17th largest supplier to Brazil, and at this point our members don't see much potential for increased sales to those countries.
We believe, therefore, that a free trade agreement with Mercosur—when viewed beside other FTAs that are in progress or being renegotiated, or new ones we see as offering important prospects for increased trade—does not provide a sufficient export growth potential to justify allocating the resources required to negotiate an agreement with that region.
There are considerable demands on Canadian negotiators. These demands include the impending renegotiation of the NAFTA; the practical completion of the CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union; the ratification and implementation of the CPTPP; and the launch of free trade discussions with China.
CAFTA members recommend that—
It is true that Brazil and Argentina are some of our competitors, but the U.S. is as well. Australia, Mexico, and the European Union are our competitors in various world markets also.
At this point, our members don't feel there is enough potential growth in the Mercosur region to consider a free trade agreement. This is particularly true in light of everything else that's going on: the NAFTA renegotiation, the need to ratify CPTPP and get a level playing field in Japan, making greater inroads in Asia. There have been talks about exploratory discussions of a potential FTA with China. That should be the priority.
There are also remaining issues with respect to the CETA agreement that was implemented last September. A number of our exporters still can't get real access to the market, in particular in the meat and grains sector. These issues, I think, should be solved before moving forward with a Mercosur agreement.
:
I'm not sure that what I had said was specifically around market access clarifications, but more broadly speaking, I think it includes that.
One of the things that our experience with Canada's approach to trade negotiations...and I think they all sort of fall into this category. NAFTA may be a bit of an exception just because of how much public attention was shone on it. However, there is a clear absence of an articulated mandate going into these negotiations. I suppose our various lead negotiators, the negotiating team, and the federal government have a plan in place about some of their bottom line proposals, about some of the key areas they want to gain market access to and some social provisions they want to make progress on. However, that's not ever clear what that is, unlike other countries like the EU and like the U.S. to some degree.
One of the things that we've also consistently called for is a more transparent process and a clarity about what it is we are trying to achieve in this. Speaking from a civil society point of view, I think it would be helpful to know this and in a way, I think that it also serves as a more appropriate strategy because it sends a signal to our negotiating partners that Canada has very clear bottom line positions, and as in the case of NAFTA, it could come to pass that a lot of Canadians and a lot of Canadian organizations will rally behind that. Therefore, I think this is something that we want to see more of, but there's no sense that will happen in Mercosur, which is the spirit behind my comment.
:
This is a very good question. On our end, it's something that I think we have a broad handle on, but certainly we're going to be digging more into sector-specific stuff. We're going to have our team looking into this more.
The broad concern we would have—and it's following up on Claire's comments as well—is just understanding the nature of trade currently with Canada and Brazil. I appreciate that it's a sizeable market. It's a region that could be considered in a developing part of the world and a growing economy. Our trade is very minuscule to this part of the world. I crunched some numbers just before this presentation began. I think if you measure total trade between Canada and Mercosur last year, it would equate to something like the same amount of trade we would generate with the United States in four days.
There would be export opportunities certainly in any situation where you would want to eliminate tariffs that would be considered a barrier. In the case of auto, we have sizeable tariffs in Brazil of upwards of 35%. Ostensibly you'd think that would be a boost. There are also issues in the Mercosur trading bloc where there are renowned non-tariff barriers, lots of subsidies, fights going on with the WTO currently right now in Brazil. There's no sense that would end in a meaningful way.
The question I think we have to ask is this. Market access and opening doors is one thing. Is it demonstrable improvements for Canada? Is it worth the trade-off of some of the other things in trade agreements that have been proven to be very troubling for Canada? These would be things around special privileges for investors and locking us into regulatory freezes, and things of that nature.
When we look at these agreements, why my comments around doing the impact assessments independently and comprehensively are so critical is that I think the days are gone when we can just say if you take that tariff off, maybe that will give us more than a couple of hundred million dollars' worth of exports. I think our thinking on free trade has to evolve beyond that now.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
What I have noticed is that there seems to be a theme that there is some concern about trading with the Mercosur area of the world. My question is why? I know your organization is very supportive of free trade in general. In my community of Oshawa and southern Ontario, we do a lot of manufacturing. One of the things I hear from manufacturers is that basically Canada is becoming one of the most costly places to manufacture. There are some domestic policy issues with unique costs that go into that equation, and whether they're regulatory, the cost of energy, or environmental carbon taxes, the uncertainty that this poses for our manufacturers, particularly right now, means that going out into the world, they just don't know what their bottom line is.
The worry I have is whether Canada is getting too expensive to compete and if this is due to government policies where we're putting in unique costs. I'll start with Claire. If the government does move forward, what policies can we put in place to improve our ability to compete? I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about technical barriers, customs procedures, regulatory coordination, even give us some examples of non-tariff barriers and tariff barriers that are out there.
Mr. DiCaro brought up Brazil, and very close to my community, automotive, and the point is well taken. What can we do, if we're going to be moving forward with these trade agreements, from a technical standpoint? Technical barriers, customs, or regulatory, can you give us some examples that the government could be looking at if we want to open up these markets?
:
There's a lot of detail to this. I'll give you some high-level pieces and I'll give you an example of what's happening in Brazil right now.
One of the core things we have on the books right now that Canada and many other nations have agreed to are core conventions in the International Labour Organization. Technically, every country should be abiding by the letter of those conventions, and the issue is that if they don't, there is no enforceability mechanism in place at the ILO, or any multilateral body, to actually make sure these countries are upholding those rights. Those are rights in fundamental things like collective bargaining, the right to organize, freedom of association, minimum ages of work, and so forth.
As a baseline, we have called for in the NAFTA a full ratification of those conventions and making them enforceable under the terms of the new agreement. This is something that social society, civil society, and Mercosur have talked about with respect to their social declaration. In addition, there are areas we want to see explored that cover gender aspects of work in trade agreements, which a lot of countries have signalled their interest in but really are refusing to put teeth to with respect to binding conditions as part of trade. We can expand that to include indigenous rights, environmental rights, and so forth. I think it's catalogued nicely in our NAFTA submission, but those are some of the high-level pieces.
I'll tell you one thing. In Brazil, under the new government of Temer, one of the first orders of business was to institute a fairly robust labour law reform package, similar to what's going on in Mexico right now. The point of that labour reform is couched in the spirit of labour market flexibility, competition, but it truly gets at the erosion of rights for workers, their rights to unionize, and many of the civil society organizations we work with are claiming that those reforms would actually put Brazil out of step with these ILO conventions. This can't happen. If we want truly fair, balanced trade and true competition, we can't have the undermining of workers' rights.
I hope that answers your question.