We'll begin the 35th meeting of this session for the Standing Committee on International Trade on our continuing discussion of a study of Canada-South America trade relations, with particular reference to Canada and Colombia.
I'm delighted to have, as our witness and guest at the committee today, Carlo Dade. Carlo is the executive director of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas, FOCAL. We've asked him to come here today to give a little background and to respond to questions of the committee.
Without further ado, because he will be the lone witness today, I think that rather than subject him to two hours of torture, I'm going to ask for a brief opening statement from Mr. Dade, followed by a couple of quick rounds of questions, and we will adjourn at 12 o'clock.
For the information of the committee, I'll then proceed to the liaison committee to deal with Brazil. If we get the go-ahead on that, we will be back to Brazil the Tuesday following the break to have additional briefings and to hear witnesses on Brazil. That presumes we have our trip approved by liaison committee. That's by way of information. And that will be it for today.
We'll now proceed with Mr. Dade.