I do appreciate your comments.
I will start by making a comment on some of the issues that were raised here about this not being an open debate. It will be. In the platform we were elected on we said that international agreements would be debated publicly in the House of Commons. I hope this offers some reassurance that this won't be done behind closed doors, that it will be an open, public debate, and that we will listen to comments such as we've heard here today. To be very frank, we've heard proponents and opponents to this.
I want to remind the witnesses of some quick numbers that will I think verify the fact that we don't want to force a bad deal on these countries. Since 1969, for example, we've contributed $287 million worth of official development assistance to Honduras alone; Nicaragua, $17 million in 2003-04; El Salvador, over $8 million in 2003-04; and Guatemala, $14 million in 2003-04.
We didn't invest in those countries to hurt them with a free trade agreement. I think you'll find that all members of this House want to make sure that whatever kind of an agreement we have benefits both of us. It will benefit Canadian companies and Canadian farmers, and it will also be able to provide tariff-free access for products coming from your countries as well. You can be assured that it will be an open debate and that we will take note of these sorts of comments, and we'll be hearing many more.
Mr. Young, you're talking about needing a high standard, and I think you're very accurate in that comment.
Ms. Marsden, you certainly voiced some concerns, and you haven't had a chance to answer here so I'll direct the question to you to start with.
Do you consider that there are more opportunities for your industry through the WTO, and will the WTO provide better access to agricultural products than bilaterals? I ask this because we're having that discussion around this table and in many more forums.