Thank you.
I just want to say, Mr. Chair and Mr. Julian, the following. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is an organization, yes, that's made up of 150 chief executives of some of Canada's largest enterprises and of chief executive officers and entrepreneurs. But one of the unique aspects of the organization is that one of the requisites is that the CEOs who come must contribute to the organization and to the priorities of the organization. In particular, they have to leave their corporate interests, essentially, at the door, and they must come and provide input on policy priorities that are in the Canadian national public interest.
To that end, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives is here today because our members have basically said to us that this deal, this Canada-EFTA agreement, is in the national public interest. That's why we're here today. We strongly support it.
We also are supportive of the government's exercise over the past ten years of engaging in a very broad consultative exercise, especially in the areas associated with the sensitivities of this deal, namely shipbuilding and agriculture. In particular, with respect to shipbuilding, the government has reflected the views of a broad number of stakeholders, especially in the shipbuilding industry, and to our mind, they have come up with the best deal they can possibly put together with respect to the shipbuilding industry. In some instances, the specifics of the shipbuilding provisions in this deal are unparalleled. This is about the longest phase-out of tariffs, certainly, we have had with another developed country.
I'll just finish in 30 seconds, Mr. Julian.
In another study that was tabled with this committee last year, a legal expert suggested that in her study of 100 FTAs, this was only the second FTA that actually had such a long phase-out provision for such products. We'd be happy to reintroduce the study to this particular committee as it goes through its deliberations. But last year's report actually referenced it as well.
So with those comments, thank you.