International Trade committee  Perhaps I can respond to that, sir. President Uribe has a very high degree of popularity. Now, that's the individual, but even more important has been the policy. The Colombian people have made great strides in the recent past, as Mr. Trost said earlier. To be able to walk freel

International Trade committee  Do you not think that the UN is an independent body?

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. Let me clarify something for you. What I want to be careful about is comparing my data with other data. I'm very certain and confident in my data because I know where I've collected it and I know it comes from reputable sources, from UN organization

International Trade committee  I think, Mr. Silva, you're very aware that I'm unable to comment on such cases because of the privacy requirements.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  I'm not aware of any disagreements among the major parties that are contesting the election with regard to moving forward on a free trade agreement with Canada or with regard to the general agreement on moving forward on the security and democracy policy that has, as I said, enge

International Trade committee  But we are aware, and we are very much engaged.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. I would need to be a bit cautious, given the public nature of the forum. I would say, though, that we lead by example. What I mean is that our interest in engagement on a dialogue on human rights, whether it's with Colombia or Venezuela, or on a free trade

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Keddy. I can only concur with your assessment. It's always difficult when you're dealing with statistics. I mean, you cannot look at a photo stop; you have to look at the trend lines. As I said in my opening remarks, that is what we've monitored, and t

International Trade committee  Whenever we negotiate an FTA, we put together a package to be able to market the trade agreement, to be able to make sure that Canadian companies are informed and are activated. We're doing that right at the moment with the Peru free trade agreement, and we will do the same, of c

International Trade committee  Ah; product promotion. I don't know if I have that on me right now, sir. I know that we have a budget of about $400,000 for the operation of the whole trade and general relations section of the embassy. Of course part of that will be devoted...but really, much of it comes out o

International Trade committee  I would be able to provide that to you.

International Trade committee  It is a regular part of any embassy's job to monitor very closely, particularly during electoral periods. They're doing that at the moment. You will recall that Colombia is probably one of the longest-standing democratic regimes in the region, and from what we have seen in past e

International Trade committee  There are always concerns raised during electoral periods, just by the nature of its being an electoral period. Yes, we are, and we do have reports, but the overall assessment is not of the nature that you are indicating at the moment.

International Trade committee  What we look at, sir, is the trend line that...the movement has been very positive. What I'm saying--I'm just being realistic--is that there are sometimes setbacks, but the conviction of the Colombian government to move forward, to open its doors to international scrutiny, is ver