Here is the speech I made on International Trade on November 3, 2020

Mr. Chandra Arya (Nepean, Lib.): Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, and all your officials, welcome to the committee.

This COVID pandemic, minister, as we all know, has hit the reset button across the world, in almost every single country in the world. For us, Canada, trade is very important: 60% of our GDP comes from trade. Not only is it international trade that is getting affected now, but we are expecting that it is going to continue to be detrimental to the old way trade was being done. One reason may be the increasing importance of self-reliance, not only for Canada, but many other countries. That may bring in some protectionist measures in different countries. The full perimeter is getting changed. We are entering a new normal in terms of international trade, so I think we have to take steps to see how it is we can help Canadian businesses continue to export outside of North American market. That is the key thing.

You mentioned EDC, BDC and the Canadian Commercial Corporation. It is good the funding is available, but I think we'll have to go down. For example, the Export Development Corporation, the cost of capital has come down, so we have to see whether that has been translated into the interest costs paid by Canadian exporters. I will not even talk about BDC because I always have issues with BDC. But regarding CCC, we have to see if they have changed their objective or their strategy so they can help more small Canadian companies enter the export market. The energy exports have already started going down, not just due to this pandemic, but also due to the comsumption getting affected by, for example, electric vehicles and the national gas consumption is getting affected due to the bigger plants being replaced by, my God, battery packs. In fact, in Canada the first major battery packs are getting implemented in Alberta.

So things have changed very dramatically in the last nine to 10 months and the new normal we are entering into. I would like to know what specific measures you are taking to help Canadian small businesses export in this new normal.