Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to welcome our witnesses. As usual, you gave excellent presentations. Thank you very much for coming back.
I'd also like to welcome my old colleague Mr. Harris back to the trade committee. It's very nice to see him back.
I want to start with two issues.
The tariff tables that you brought are very helpful. We'll be looking at the blues over the next couple of days, but particularly in your presentations I think those will be useful for the committee.
The first question concerns consultations. Were you consulted at any stage around Canada-Jordan, and if so how? We had some discussions with departmental officials a couple of days ago, and it didn't seem clear at all that there were any consultations, even with some of the key export sectors that would be impacted by the agreement.
Secondly, I have questions concerning promotional budgets. We've talked about this before, but it turned out from the testimony we got on Tuesday that the total promotional budget of the Government of Canada for export products in the Jordanian market right now is a grand total of zero, and if we implemented this agreement it would go up to a grand total of $12,000 per year. That's less than what your average corner store spends in New Westminster marketing to an area of a few blocks. We're talking about a market of six million people.
I'm wondering what promotional budgets you would be interested in putting into Jordan. Are you aware of how much money other governments, for example those of the United States and Australia, are putting into marketing to Jordan, compared with the $12,000 that the Conservative government wants to put in?
Could you also mention the total promotional budgets that you have now, through the federal government and through the ranchers, grain growers, pulse growers themselves? What is your total worldwide budget for this year, 2010, for Canadian exports?
You're both very important industries, and I just don't think the government pays more than lip service to developing these markets by providing the promotional oomph that other countries provide.