International Trade committee  Certainly, it's top of mind for everyone in government right now. It is a very important issue. We have been thinking about it. Trade and pharmaceutical products are covered by CETA and will be covered by the TCA when it is in place. I don't foresee any problems one way or another in terms of the trade agreement not covering those goods.

International Trade committee  Did it surprise me? I think, as was expressed earlier this week by both the minister and my assistant deputy minister, it was disappointing. I think that we're doing our best to work with our European counterparts to make sure that these bans do not go forward. We're also looking at continuing our internal analysis to see what we can do, to see if there are other ways that we can work with the Europeans to mitigate any of these risks.

International Trade committee  I don't think there's anything. To the best of my knowledge, to date we have not come up with any provisions that we could put in the agreement that would prevent what they're doing. As was discussed earlier this week, what they are doing seems at least to be consistent with their WTO obligations, as well as their obligations under CETA.

International Trade committee  We did an analysis that shows where the benefits will flow to the Canadian economy overall from the trade continuity agreement. I'll just remind you that it is about continuing the trade that we had between Canada and the United Kingdom, so it's about preserving those market access gains, preserving those exports, preserving all the employment opportunities that we already had in place.

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, the new post-bilateral agreement—is that what you mean?

International Trade committee  No, we have not yet begun those negotiations. We need to complete our domestic process in order to ensure that the TCA is in place. After that, we will have consultations with the Canadian public and with others with an interest—stakeholders, provinces and territories etc.—to determine what we would seek in a bilateral negotiation with the U.K.

International Trade committee  Certainly, I think one of the things that we've heard from stakeholders for more than a while as we were negotiating the trade continuity agreement was to ensure stability and certainty in the U.K. marketplace. That was goal number one. Once we got past that, I think what we started to hear more of from stakeholders was the desire to improve our market access, especially for key exports in the agricultural sector.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and honourable members, for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on International Trade to address Bill C-18, an act to implement the agreement on trade continuity between Canada and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.