Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My apologies for not being here earlier to hear all of your presentation, Mr. Robertson.
I want to make sure you don't leave here with the impression that this committee wants to vet every appointment on these panels. Historically that hasn't been our job, and we've never decided that should be our job at this level. We certainly assume that there will be some very knowledgeable people on the panels, and I don't think it's our position at this point, unless this committee decides otherwise, to interfere at that level.
I would like to go back to a couple of misconceptions. On the dispute settlement mechanism, I understood your response to Mr. Julian's question to be quite firm that the dispute settlement mechanism in place in this agreement is binding. Could you explain that one to me again? Perhaps I didn't understand your explanation properly, but I think it's quite binding.
During all these debates in the House and committee we keep talking about how close we were--we were inches away, we were moments away from a court settlement in the U.S. in our favour. We've watched more court settlements be appealed and lost--not in our favour. Why would we assume that those that are still inches away would be any different from all the ones in the past?