International Trade committee  At present, yes. However, this figure increases by 10% every year. So there is potential there. In addition, as I stated, we are almost certain that a Quebec plant is selling the paper and a British Columbia plant is selling the lumber.

International Trade committee  Currently, there is an agreement with the United States. This is the other country that sells lumber and paper to Panama. Our share of the market is $8 million and the United States has a market worth $112 million.

International Trade committee  This is not obvious at present, however it is clear that if we were able to remove the 15% tariff that is in effect, that would give us a leg up.

International Trade committee  Exactly. This would be with respect to the United States.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. Thank you. I think the latest irritant.... Let me rewind the clock a little bit. We ship $24 billion worth of our product outside of our borders. About 70% of that goes to the U.S.; the U.S. remains our most important marketplace. However, it's also one of great dependence, and as the softwood lumber dispute highlights, sometimes it's a little dangerous to be too dependent on one marketplace.

International Trade committee  We sell products to Panama. We do not employ any staff. We simply sell softwood lumber and pulp and paper. This may be more—

International Trade committee  —up to him to answer.

International Trade committee  I'll try to avoid the obvious softwood lumber discussion. I think it's still early days for most of those deals for us, for sure. We were already present in those marketplaces, so they weren't exactly frontier markets for us. Certainly what we would expect to have happen as the tariffs come down is that the agreements will make our companies more competitive and will open up probably new potential for the companies.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see a number of new faces around the table at this meeting, so by way of a brief introduction, Forest Products Association of Canada is the national voice for Canada's wood, pulp, and paper producers. It's an industry in Canada that accounts for about 12% of Canada's manufacturing GDP.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. As legislators, as parliamentarians, you always have a balance of interests you've got to keep in mind, and you have to keep it. So there may be technical problems with this bill, I don't doubt that. I have not seen the technical language around those bills. I believe that.

Government Operations committee  I think you're exactly right, Ms. Coady. The level playing field is essentially that we now start taking a look at the buildings from a more holistic standpoint. Up until now, we've sort of said “Can you build ten storeys with...or what can you build with, given the fire codes and all the other things?”

Government Operations committee  I have two quick points. Mr. Martin, your concern for the sort of overall environmental impact is exactly right, and that's why we say let's go after the life-cycle assessment and get that into the process. We will go up against any other building product out there, and gladly do so, and we will beat it based on science, as Monsieur Labbé pointed out.

Government Operations committee  That is easy to answer. It is more than 50%, which represents $24 billion. Most of our products are exported.

Government Operations committee  Yes, 70% of our production goes to the United States.

Government Operations committee  Monsieur Labbé said it well, but just very quickly, clearly the Government of Canada is not going to.... This is not our most important market. Our most important markets are outside of the border. But I will say that it's important that we demonstrate at home that we support the use of wood in our buildings.