Mr. Reuben East:

I thank Ms Drisdelle. CETA does not allow enterprises from third countries to benefit from CETA's investment dispute resolution provisions simply because they have some activities in Canada or the EU, as the case may be. It is not in Canada's interest to provide CETA's benefits to third countries. We would like Canadian and European companies to have a competitive advantage over third countries under this agreement. I will illustrate with an example of an Irish investor operating in Canada. CETA's investment provisions would offer protection to an Irish investor or enterprise that is established in Canada or owned or controlled by an Irish enterprise or, third, can demonstrate that it has substantial business activities in Canada.

That aspect is very novel under the ICS system. This means that an Irish company which was owned or controlled by, for example, a US investor, would be precluded from bringing a case forward or if it were still owned or controlled by an Irish investor but were merely a letterbox company, as they sometimes call them, it would also not have substantial business activities and would be precluded from bringing a case forward.