Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to be very brief, because I have only five minutes and I wanted to hear from the excellent panel of witnesses we have before us.
I want to very quickly hear about the issue of the binding dispute resolution mechanism. I wanted to know your impressions of how effective this will be in dealing with some of these issues.
I also want to know if the Lisbon treaty that was signed.... I know about the implication that has in terms of the political system, but are there any additional mechanisms in place that make it more difficult in terms of the regulatory cooperation or signing a free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada? Also, I'm wondering if their very tough environmental standards will make access to procurement and sub-national procurement in those countries even more difficult.
I was hoping that maybe the former minister of trade could answer that question.