We usually don't have very extensive discussions or debates about free trade agreements in Iceland, because generally they are so welcome and there is a consensus in Parliament about them. I think that will be the case here with the agreement with Canada. Of course the joining of EFTA by Iceland in 1970 was heavily debated at that time, and of course we had different views along political lines on how healthy that would be for Icelandic society, and so on. People were naturally painting the devil on the wall in many of these argumentations that were going on at that time, but it has proved very successful for us.
I think that the unions, for instance, are very happy with the arrangements. As a matter of fact, we had to go through a renovation process in many of our industries when we entered EFTA. We are a small economy and we have a lot of small businesses. We were even producing our own carpets in Iceland for the Icelandic market, and biscuits and chocolates and all that. It was difficult for many of the factories in these individual sectors when they faced the competition from very well-established companies in other countries that could actually offer the goods at lower prices, and they had free access to the Icelandic market after we joined EFTA. This was something the industries faced; they took the necessary measures to actually renovate or adapt to a new situation, and they did it very well.
I am not an expert on the shipbuilding clauses involved in the agreement. I don't know the background as well as my Norwegian colleague here do, but I know from our discussions with the ministers here in 2006, especially with then Minister of Industry Bernier, that they were very much determined to do everything the Canadian government could do to safeguard the Canadian shipbuilders. He underlined that this still was a matter for concern at that stage, and I gather that this has been studied very carefully by the Canadian government and that they have done their economic surveys on the impact of the EFTA treaty on particularly this sector of the industry.