Thanks for the presentation. I'm a relatively new committee member, and I'm trying to understand the issues around this free trade agreement.
Mr. Barr, you seemed to be saying that this is not an agreement based on the merits of improvement in trade. It addresses a negligible amount of trade relative to what Canada conducts with some other countries and is therefore more of a political deal. Your view is that our recommendation should be based on whether we think a free trade agreement can improve the conditions we're concerned about. If so, we should approach it positively. But if it's a only gesture towards a country whose record does not merit our support, then we should recommend against it. That's generally what I heard.
You also seemed to suggest that increased trade would worsen the human rights situation. I think that's an important thing for us to understand. We've been advised by others that the scrutiny and transparency that a free trade agreement occasions would be a positive thing. For example, there would probably be a compliance review and reporting on human rights and environmental side agreements. Could you give me a bit more information about why you believe that trade will worsen the human rights situation, given that there will be more of a public stage on which this whole thing will be taking place?
Mr. Neve, you are claiming that the level of violence in human rights abuses, which is a tragedy we're all concerned about, hasn't improved over the last while. There's sort of a selection of statistics here that we're going to have to try to understand in our decision-making. You're suggesting a human resources impact assessment, with recommendations to be addressed. You also mentioned that negotiations must include a broad representation of society. In a way, you're asserting that your conditions for going ahead with an FTA would require the bar to be set higher for Colombia than we set it for our own country. We in Canada don't have broad representation from society in the way I am imagining you're calling for. I'd like you to answer why you believe we should require a different bar for Canada and our trade partners.