Our firms and workers expect that their government will work for them and put in place trade agreements to allow them to compete in the international markets on a level playing field.

We will do so by continuing to seek out new trading opportunities, be it through pursuing cross-border opportunities with the incoming Obama administration in the United States or through pursuing new trade agreements in Europe, Asia, the Americas and elsewhere.

H. whereas it is in the mutual interests of the European Union and the People's Republic of China to find international political and geostrategic common ground going beyond trading relations, which includes respect for and the promotion of fundamental rights and democratic values, to which nations around the world aspire; whereas this common ground can only be achieved by dialogue and mutual respect,

Ms. McDonough (Halifax), seconded by Mr. Blaikie (Winnipeg Transcona), moved, That, in the opinion of this House, this government has sabotaged Canadian democracy by pursuing a trade policy that gives excessive power to unelected and unaccountable international trade organizations and erodes the ability of Canada's elected representatives to act in the public interest; and That therefore the government should not negotiate any further liberalization of trade or investment at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) without first securing enforceable international rules on core labour standards, environmental protection, cultural diversity, the preservation of public health care ...[+++] and public education and, generally, the right of democratically-elected governments to act for the common good; and That the government should seek to eliminate the investor- state dispute mechanism in Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which gives foreign corporations the right to sue and intimidate Canadian governments as in the cases involving MMT and bulk water exports, and should refuse to include such a mechanism in any other trade agreement; and further That the government should take action to remedy its over- zealous and irresponsible pursuit of greater trade liberalisation, which has caused extreme hardship for Canadian farmers, whose domestic support payments have been slashed by 60%, three times what was actually required by Canada's international trading obligations.

These express and explicit agreements were in reality the result of a continuing agreement, understanding and concert of action among the producers. The participants had set up an infrastructure of regular meetings and were involved in a continuous process of business diplomacy aimed at reconciling their respective interests. For the purpose of forming and carrying out their scheme, the participants did things which they had devised and agreed to do, including (but not limited to) participating in meetings to discuss prices, sales quotas and project-sharing; agreeing during those meetings to charge particular prices and to increase and ...[+++]maintain prices; drafting, agreeing and distributing model price-lists to be used for coordinating pricing; exchanging information on sales volumes, market size and market shares so as to set up a quota system; and agreeing a sales quota system.