Well, the first thing I'd take exception to, Alex, is the reference to secret negotiations. This was the first time in history that the provinces and farm groups were briefed on a daily basis as to what was moving forward, so I don't know how you keep things secret when everybody's briefed.
On this leaked text, it's exactly that. It's a leak. It's a spill. It's something that needs to be cleaned up. It's not factual. There was a lot of myth information put out there as things moved forward. The full text is out there now; the full legal text is there. I would ask that you compare what was leaked and what's fact, and what's been agreed to by Canada and the European Union. If you compare the two, you will see that there are significant differences in what was leaked.
On trade deals, we always retain our sovereignty. We've been able to do that underscored with NAFTA and with a number of the other bilaterals that we've done. This is the largest and most comprehensive deal that's ever been undertaken in Canadian history and in the European precinct as well. They do have free trade agreements with countries like South Korea, and so on, and they're working on others, such as the United States, which isn't going anywhere quickly. Having said that, it's a tremendous opportunity for especially agriculture to take advantage of 500 million more consumers. We look at that as a good thing.
On Bill C-18, there's nothing in it that was directed or dictated so that we conform to that. We don't have to do UPOV 91. We just know after 22 years of discussion it's time that this moved forward. I make no apologies for the timing of this. We're open to discussion. We're open to good amendments, if some are required. I know this committee will do its due diligence.