Thank you for that question.
Members of this committee will know that Colombia has been through some very tough times over the last ten to fifteen years. It was an economy driven by the drug trade and by paramilitary organizations. There have been death squads and executions in the thousands over the years.
With the election of President Uribe, we believe there is a very strong commitment on the part of the Colombian government to improve the situation in Colombia. We believe fundamentally that we have to look for all opportunities to provide Colombians with legitimate, legal opportunities to create wealth, to create jobs, to get themselves out of poverty. There are few things we can do for a country like Colombia that are more powerful than a free trade agreement or an agreement that will allow Canadian investors to go into Colombia and make socially responsible but wealth-creating investments. In our opinion, that's the number one way to deal with poverty.
On the human rights front, we do not rely strictly on the trade agreement to deal with human rights, although we will have a human rights chapter in the free trade agreement if we get there—there will be one on the environment as well—that will ensure that Colombia meets internationally recognized standards for labour and for human rights, and commits itself to the ongoing enhancement of human rights.
We will also be—and we have been over the last year or two—putting over $30 million into various initiatives on the ground to support organizations that are trying to strengthen democracy in Colombia and strengthen the legal system, programs focused on improving the rights of children, and a wide variety of other initiatives that we think have to complement the free trade agreement.
When a government is committed to taking on a program of fundamental democratic reform, of enhanced freedoms, of human rights, of trying to impose rule of law, we believe the worst thing you can do is walk away from them and leave them in an economically desperate situation. That would be absolutely the worst thing to do.