Good day, gentlemen and welcome to the committee. I'm sure some of you are regulars here.
The cautionary note that you sounded at the conclusion of your presentation reminds us, up to a point, that it is somewhat difficult to get an overall picture of the negotiations and especially of the potential repercussions of an FTA. Since parliamentarians will also be called upon to ratify the free trade agreement, the situation almost demands that we take a leap of faith, since we may never be privy to all of the details.
I imagine that you analyse the agreement, from both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint, to determine the positives and negatives. As with all economic agreements, both parties must emerge as winners. Therefore, at some point, they must be prepared to make some sacrifices. Often, it is pretty hard for us to get an overall sense of how the negotiations are going. Perhaps we could get some idea if we looked at the tariffs, although they do not always indicate what impact this is having on our various industries or the advantages and disadvantages of the agreement for other sectors.
Considering all of the work that you will be doing to get the parties to potentially sign an agreement, ratification is also an important step. Since there are some details that negotiators are unwilling to disclose to us, is there some way to bring parliamentarians into the loop so that they can make an enlightened decision when the time comes to ratify this agreement that is currently being negotiated?