It's a question of choice, Mr. Chairman.
What happened to the Canadian economy under the impact of multilateral trade agreements, partly, but certainly under the impact of free trade with the United States, is that it was reoriented on a north-south basis and on the basis of integrated production networks. And that is evident not only in the auto sector but also in many others.
The only thing I can tell you on that is to recall a meeting I attended several years ago with Mr. MacLaren, who was the trade minister at the time and present with a number of Canadian business executives. Mr. MacLaren was talking about the Asia-Pacific and other things. And one very senior executive said, “Look, Minister, our interests are in the United States. If you have any time and energy and resources left over, spend them on the United States, as that's where the problems are. Unless you fix those problems, other markets don't matter.”
So is this only for the trade department or the trade committee? No. We're talking about the gamut of public policy issues that we have to manage on a daily basis with the United States. And clearly we have to manage them better, because you're quite right that the border is beginning to thicken and become more difficult and more costly for Canadian companies to penetrate.