The short answer is that I don't know, but I'll tell you of a very positive development I've seen in ASEAN. There's a focus in our trade commission and our diplomatic service not just on the individual economies of ASEAN but on ASEAN as a whole. We now have an officer who covers all of Southeast Asia--ASEAN specifically--working out of Singapore. That brief can be expanded, and we should dedicate more resources to looking at ASEAN qua ASEAN, rather than simply as individual markets. That will give us a window into the things that ASEAN is doing through their bilateral free trade agreements, deeper economic integration, plans for intra-industry trade, and so on. Those are essential to a different kind of positioning for Canadian companies, not just in single markets but in the region as a whole.
On February 22nd, 2007. See this statement in context.