Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses. Most of you have been to the committee before, so welcome back.
To Monsieur Laurin, just listening to your testimony, I have one slight difficulty with it. I agree with what you're saying, so don't misunderstand me. The challenge here on negotiating this economic partnership agreement with Japan is probably that we have to do it in parallel, and not necessarily with the Americans.
The Americans already have an agreement, number one. Number two, they are in an election cycle, and it's very, very doubtful.... I mean, we certainly are ambitious in our trans-Pacific partnership, but in an election cycle, it makes it even more difficult. Therefore, we have an I think even greater urgency to negotiate a bilateral. And the opportunity.... The doors are open.
I go to Mr. Wilkinson's statement of his high-level delegation to Japan. We've seen a willingness that has never been there in the past to negotiate and discuss difficult issues.
I understand what you're saying about our rules of origin. That's a great obstacle for Canada, without question, with an integrated marketplace with Mexico and United States. But whether or not the trans-Pacific partnership gets off the ground, this is the third-largest economy in the world, our fourth-largest trading partner. We need to do this without attaching any strings to it, and I just want to be clear on that. An agreement with Japan, even if the TPP doesn't work, is still important.