Thanks very much.
Welcome, Minister, and welcome to your officials, once again, as they come back to the committee table.
Minister, it was the WTO director general, Pascal Lamy, who proposed that the February 8 release of draft text on both agriculture and industrial tariffs should lead to, and I'll quote, “a 'horizontal' negotiating process involving trade-offs across” agriculture and industrial tariffs and other possible areas, “culminating in a ministerial meeting to finalise a 'modalities' deal around Easter”, which of course this year is March 23. Earlier this month he said members had demonstrated a “collective determination to conclude the talks by the end of 2008”, which would require a framework deal on agriculture and industrial goods six to eight months earlier, setting the date around April.
Minister, that seems to be a bone of contention between you and international trade experts, because what the international trade experts are suggesting is that to conclude agricultural and industrial tariffs, there would potentially be a trade-off session with other sectors, i.e., fisheries. Minister, I think we've heard that expression before, agriculture versus fish, and to be able to do that, we'd have to proceed six to eight months before the end of 2008, which sets the date as April 2008, to establish a general principle framework agreement.
What the expert witnesses have told us is once that general agreement is established, that agreement in principle, arguing on the margins is next to impossible. The organization, the WTO, either proceeds with the bulk of the package—agriculture, industrial and cultural industries, textiles, and fisheries—or it proceeds with nothing.
Would you be able to comment on that, Mr. Minister?