Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to our guests today. I appreciate your sharing your experience and words of wisdom.
I know, Mr. Clark, we had the opportunity to hear from you in December, and we appreciated the input you provided at that time, with your biography about four decades of experience. You've seen a lot happen in different countries and different governments. You're correct that it has been about six years now, I guess, since the last free trade agreement here in Canada, with Costa Rica, and we need to be more realistic, or as you said, pragmatic, to see if we can get some results and some wins here.
We've had a diverse group of witnesses here presenting to our committee. Our goal is to report to the House and try to provide some direction on where Canada should go with some of the challenges and opportunities and where to focus with the limited resources that we have.
The Conference Board of Canada recently released a report called Mission Possible: Stellar Canadian Performance in the Global Economy. I proposed the same question to them at that time: with the resources we have and focusing on the opportunities, where do you see Canada best expending our time and energies to get the quickest results and the most realistic approach?
The last report that was out, Foreign Affairs and International Trade's report on plans and priorities, lists the United States, Mexico, China, India, Brazil, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and then the ASEAN nations about number eight. Do you think we should be focusing our energies on working with the ASEANs or concentrating on other countries?