Thank you, Mr. Chair, and our witnesses.
I just want to follow up on my colleagues' comments on our being here to help Canadian businesses expand, and we're also concerned about human rights around the world. So we're trying to strike the right balance.
I will just go back to the U.S.-Jordan agreement almost ten years to the day, October 24, 2000, when the U.S. and Jordan announced their agreement. It took effect on December 17, 2001, and over that nine-year-plus period they've actually doubled their trade; and from 2007 to 2009, there has been an almost 40% increase, from just over $900 million to $1.35 billion.
As Canada is a trading nation, we're being left behind. So we need to move forward and level the playing field with, as was alluded to, a rules-based trading system.
My question to you, gentlemen, is that at a time when the United States continues to trade in an aggressive manner, we want to be leaders from both an economic and human rights perspective. Part of the labour cooperation agreement we signed fulfils and respects the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The declaration addresses issues such as the right to freedom of association; the right to collective bargaining; the abolition of child labour, which I know has been identified by some other witnesses; the elimination of forced or compulsory labour; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. Plus the agreement includes an enforcement mechanism.
My question to you, gentlemen, is do we just continue to allow the Americans to continue to increase their trade while we step back to try to get this perfect agreement, or do we move forward with this agreement and build on a rules-based trading system and have an enforcement mechanism to help improve the labour situation and the economic situation of both countries?