Although I said “psychologically speaking”, the same obviously applies at the diplomatic and political levels as well. When you are friends with another country and your trade is increasing… I understand Canada's sensitivity to issues such as governance, gender equality and mothers and children, but we believe we have made some progress in those areas. That is why I said that, psychologically speaking, it posed a problem for us: we really did not have a clear understanding of the reason why our country had been removed from the list.
However, I must say that when I met with Canadian authorities, they explained the reasons why the list had been cut back—the idea being to secure more visibility for Canada's initiatives, and that the decision to cut back the list did not mean that Canada was no longer interested in countries that were not on it. That was reassuring to us. However, as I stated at the outset, although the amount of aid in a particular sector was on the rise, we had the impression that not being on the list meant that we would no longer receive the same consideration we had when we were on it.