Thank you all for your presentations. The best to all of you and your families for the holiday season as well.
These have been enlightening presentations, and they're appreciated by our committee. There are so many great points that have been made, but I'll just raise a couple of things.
I think there's a pretty clear understanding that we can't ignore the reality that competitors to this country are signing free trade agreements much more rapidly than we are and have been doing so for some time. We can't ignore the reality that Korea's attitude towards international trade has changed remarkably over the last few years and that they are ambitiously pursuing other trading partners. We can't ignore the reality that if we fail to enter into an agreement with Korea, our competitors will. We can't ignore the reality that therefore we'll lose access to a great potential market and a launching pad for a very vital, growing, aggressive part of the world's economic activity. If we fail to ignore any of those preface comments, I think we're going to fall further behind.
I have just one really simple question. I think it's been made pretty clear by your testimony that your major concern--and I don't want to erroneously say this--is the issue of non-tariff barriers. That's come through in each of your comments so far. If you know of a better way to address the non-tariff barriers to trade between Korean and Canada than through this exercise in negotiating a free trade agreement, I am certainly interested in hearing what that better way is.