I would like to thank all of our witnesses. Once again, I apologize for the delay at the beginning; hopefully we'll be able to add enough time at the end to make your trip worthwhile.
I would like to start by making a comment. I think if we went back to the blues from committees prior to the 1988 election or to Hansard from the House of Commons, we would hear all of the same arguments and fears read off from all of those notes—all of the doom and gloom that would happen to us if we actually started to trade with the rest of the world.
I realize there are some concerns, but I hope everyone can look at this as a glass half full. We doomed the wine industry to failure and it was one of the best success stories following the free trade agreement with the United States.
Going back to Mr. Nantais' comment about being excluded from any discussions, the previous witness said they've established a dedicated automotive consultative group to support these negotiations. We're getting conflicting comments. We recently met in Ottawa with this group, and we're getting conflicting reports.
Alanna, you've stressed the value of multilateral versus bilateral, and that's something this committee is looking at. Could you share some comments? I know there are concerns about bilateral arrangements, but we're also concerned about potential failure in multilateral agreements such as in the WTO.