Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Lilly and Mr. Nagy, thank you for being with us this evening. I think your comments will enlighten us as we move forward.
Ms. Lilly, what I'm going to raise here will be helpful to Mr. Nagy, who obviously wasn't able to hear your testimony. Right off the bat, you stated that Canada is economically dependent on the United States. In many cases, Canadian companies are dependent because it's easy for them to do business with the United States. We take the easy way out, even though we tend to put all our eggs in one basket as a result. Therefore, when the United States adopts more protectionist policies, it necessarily has an impact on our economy and our businesses. As the saying goes, when the United States sneezes, Canada is bedridden.
I don't know if you both agree with me, but it seems to me that one unstated goal of Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy is to diversify our economy. Several attempts have been made to do that in the past, first during the Pierre Elliott Trudeau years, then during the Jean Chrétien years, and finally during the Stephen Harper years. However, none of their efforts were successful, or at least not as successful as expected.
Ms. Lilly, you partly addressed the following issue when you talked about the need to do business with various countries that are signatories to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. However, my question is for you and Mr. Nagy. From both your perspectives, how will this Indo-Pacific strategy lead us to succeed when we have so often failed in the past?