Mr. Chairman, Canada has been part of the Cairns Group for many years because we have many interests in common with the members of this group, however, the other members of the Cairns Group are entirely aware of the Canadian position on supply management and have accepted that Canada maintains this position. You can see through several press releases issued by this group over the years that the Canadian position on supply management is expressly recognized.
To date, the Cairns Group has never indicated it intended to exclude Canada because of its position. They simply take into account the fact that we have a sufficient number of other interests in common to make it important for us to continue in our partnership. For us, this is also a way in which to move forward our export-based interests. It must also be stated that there are divergent interests among the members of the Cairns Group. All of its members do not systematically agree on every issue.