Mr. Minister, welcome. Welcome to your people also.
I think we're all excited to hear the ambitious agenda you've described to us. It's exciting in particular after more than a decade of rather lacklustre and lethargic approaches to developing trade networks around the world. That being said, I think many of us on this committee understand the importance of advancing human rights as well and recognize that developing stronger trading relationships with other nations where human rights are in jeopardy at times is important and critical, and that these two things are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are intertwined realities.
My question to you pertains specifically to the Colombia negotiations, where we know human rights violations have occurred and where we do everything in our power as a nation to address those realities. What kinds of actions are you taking to specifically address the issue of human rights in terms of the negotiations themselves? Secondly, if you'd like, please comment on your hopes or your aspirations as far as addressing reductions through trade, achieving real reductions in the human rights violations that have occurred in Colombia, in the hope they will not occur with that frequency in the future.