You talked about Asian companies, European companies, and U.S. companies. They're all lining up to get their share of the pie, as I've often said. If I may quote you, “We've been left out.” That's something that I think many members here on this committee—the opposition and government—are saying. We don't want to be left out. We want our share of the pie within the proper guidelines, as you probably heard if you were in the room earlier.
Mr. Dade, I was really pleased when you said that we've signed the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Even though there are some obstacles and concerns, there have been provisions to address those. Our colleague, the former critic, Scott Brison, brought forth an amendment that I think was well received.
With all of the difficulties, you said that Panama is a country we want to do business with. You used the words “stable country”. I've never been there--unlike the previous gentleman, who was not really at the mine--but I have heard from some Canadian friends of mine that they're quite impressed with the infrastructure there. They're also saying that Panama is not perfect. But name me one country that's perfect today.
I just want to add those comments before I ask Ms. Nott the following. She talked about the U.S. moving forward to sign an agreement. I note this because one of the obstacles that's been put before our committee is the financial instability—I'm trying to find the right words here.
I was wondering, Ms. Nott, if you could elaborate on that, because I assume, from what you were saying, that once the Americans sign that agreement—and it looks like they're going to be signing it—the next step is that they're going to move forward with signing an FTA. Am I correct in assuming that? Unless we move as quickly as we possibly can, we might do what Mr. Dade talked about and miss the boat again. We lost out a bit on the Central America free trade agreement as well, which, hopefully, we'll come back to.
Can you please give us some more on that?