Thank you for that question.
When I was preparing to come before this committee, I was thinking back; it's been two years since negotiations have been completed. Part of the reason this FTA was aggressively negotiated was due to the recommendations of this committee to undertake defensive FTAs to ensure that we don't become uncompetitive in markets in which our trading partners are negotiating FTAs.
The U.S., of course, has negotiated with Colombia. They have just completed negotiations with the EU as well. We're facing tariffs from 10% to over 100%, so I don't know how the elimination of those tariffs would lead to a decline in exports. Of course, the economic recession has seriously undermined trade around the world.
We have an opportunity here. It's a very strong agreement. There is broad-based support among industry across Canada and among agricultural producers.
Now is the time to move to creating an advantage for Canada, which is what we're trying to do with this agreement and our global commerce strategy in general.