International Trade committee  That is correct about being left out. If the United States and Mexico were part of the deal, and Canada steps aside for any reason, that's when you start to hear pessimism as to what the potential future is. NAFTA does not equal TPP, and TPP does not equal NAFTA. They are not interchangeable.

International Trade committee  I would have to agree with what Ms. De Silva was saying in that we look at it from more of a macro sampling, from that perspective. We represent so many different industry sectors. We know at one point in time there was definitely concern in the automotive sector, and we worked closely with our automotive partners during the negotiations when that was raised as a concern.

International Trade committee  I would defer to the industry trade sectors that were in that. We were consulted and conferred with relative to some of the rules, specific things, and what our thoughts were, and we gave those thoughts to our members. One sector we also consulted with, aside from automotive, was oil and gas.

International Trade committee  I don't think so. What I'm about to say is going to sound un-Canadian, and I don't mean it to sound that way. For the most part in Canada, my members feel—specifically, because those are the only ones I can speak to—when we're sitting at the table that we're not one of the most powerful players.

International Trade committee  I would just throw in there that I think many small to medium-sized companies still question and become confused about the difference between BDC and EDC. There's confusion around the two. In direct answer to your question, I think EDC can help small companies with hedging strategies and stuff for currency, but small companies often don't know that.

International Trade committee  It's not something our members have ever brought to us as a concern. Going back to my earlier statement, the one thing they made very clear to me is that if TPP goes forward, we have to be in the game. They've never directly addressed that point. I'm sorry.

International Trade committee  A low Canadian dollar, I think it goes without saying, helps on the export side. On the import side of the house, as long as the dollar remains stable and is not in a free fall, as it was a few months ago—that's a very disquieting circumstance.... As long as it remains relatively stable, a low Canadian dollar doesn't actually negatively impact imports, because you can plan what your cost needs to be in your spreadsheet and you move on, and it actually enhances your export sales.

International Trade committee  We were mentioning the food sector, so I'll speak to some food examples. One example that would be probably known to everyone in the room would be country-of-origin labelling that we just went through with the United States. That's a perfect example. I think often non-tariff trade barriers are not brought up by either the Canadian government—because sometimes we do it to ourselves—or foreign governments as a means to intentionally be a non-tariff trade barrier.

International Trade committee  You'd have to pick a country and then, yes, all of those things that you said, but they differ from country to country. As Jan is referring to, you have to pick your country and then get educated on that one country. Just because one country is in TPP doesn't mean you can take the learning that you've had from TPP in one country and automatically transfer it to another.

International Trade committee  I do. The bottom line to that is that if you take a look at what countries are involved in TPP, they are already countries that Canadian and American companies are sourcing from. The fact that we would have a free trade agreement with them makes it attractive. Let me go back to the question you asked Sean: whether or not there has been any sort of analysis done as to what would happen if the United States and Mexico were part of TPP and Canada was not.

International Trade committee  We don't actually have training per se. One thing we find challenging and that our members have told us repeatedly over the years is that the kinds of programs Ms. De Silva is talking about are to be applauded, and our members take advantage of them. They're more about market access, though, rather than understanding the regulatory requirements.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for giving I.E. Canada, the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, which is far too long to say, so we call ourselves I.E. Canada, the opportunity to testify this morning. I.E. Canada is a national trade association that's been speaking on behalf of Canadian importers and exporters for almost 85 years.

International Trade committee  One of the things we think is important for the panel to understand is that right now there seems to be.... I was saying to the chair, in a chat before we got officially started, if you had asked me to make comments on TPP about 18 months ago, I think my comments from member feedback would be slightly different than they are this morning.

International Trade committee  I'll jump on that one first. There was something that came about eight months ago or so, six to eight months ago, the environmental goods agreement, which is being negotiated globally. Canada's at the table and looking at that. What the program basically is looking at doing is reducing duty rates and other traditional trade barriers to encourage green goods, goods that are specifically defined as being “green”, to be traded to try to enhance the economic attractiveness of those goods.

International Trade committee  I would say advertise, advertise, advertise, and no, that doesn't necessarily mean television commercials and an extended budget. That's not what I'm saying. There are things like Facebook, Twitter. There are all kinds of things. Get the word out there for what services are available.