Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Once again, I'd like to answer in English because the explanations are a bit complex.
Services negotiations have been under way, frankly, since the year 2000 in the Doha Round. One of the issues is that we always seem to be working under the shadow of agriculture and non-agricultural market access, but we've been pursuing a market access agenda in services negotiations, a rules agenda in the services negotiations, as well as an agenda that seeks to ensure that developing countries are dealt with in appropriate ways in the negotiating context.
What you're referring to, I believe, are plurilateral services requests that were an innovation in the negotiating process agreed on by ministers in Hong Kong. This process and these plurilateral requests are an extension, if you will, of what has been going on for three or four years in services negotiations, which are bilateral market access negotiations and requests. The plurilateral requests and that process were designed to introduce into the negotiation a little more efficiency, perhaps a little more focus. The grid of services sectors on which the negotiations take place is pretty complex and pretty numerous, in terms of the subsectors involved, so this was an attempt to give the process a bit of focus.
Canada is a requester in this plurilateral market access process in nine sectors, we're a recipient in ten, and there's one sector where there is a request but we're neither a requester nor a recipient.
The process we're engaged in, and have been engaged in for some time, is a request-offer process to achieve greater market access. The Hong Kong ministerial conference called for a revised services offer to be put on the table in Geneva at the end of July. We're working towards that objective, consulting with provinces, territories, non-governmental groups, and other stakeholders.