Mr. Chair, thank you very much.
Thank you for being here on such short notice, Minister. As I was telling the opposition colleagues just last week, that's the excellent service they've come to expect from the government. So it's good to have you here.
I want to talk a bit about trade. I know you follow the proceedings of this committee. To the proceedings you have followed, I'd like to add comments of farmers who really appreciate the extent to which you go to open up international borders to our farmers and the tremendous success you've had, both in the context of free trade agreements and also just in terms of getting the border open to pork and beef, pulse crops, etc., in other countries.
I want to focus in on the trans-Pacific partnership. It's engendered a lot of discussion. I think it's very good for farmers, particularly when the U.S. is part of this. For example, what I've been explaining is that if we're not at the table and the U.S. is and that goes through, the U.S. farmers win. Our farmers are then disadvantaged because they're not part of that trade deal; our farmers lose. So it's important that we're at the table, but of course it's raised concerns regarding supply management.
Mr. Allen raised that point as well, regarding supply management. He had a few questions on it. The opposition has been saying it's on the table, it's going to be negotiated away, it's going to be compromised.
Minister, you mentioned in your opening remarks that you put in place or you helped put in place, I think, nine other trade agreements with countries. In terms of those, have you ever compromised supply management? Can you comment on the TPP, this table that we're now sitting at in terms of trade negotiations and supply management?