I'm always in favour of having a mechanism that allows us to at least influence the agenda. The free trade agreements at least give us the opportunity to examine tariff and non-tariff trade barriers and market access issues and to establish a dispute resolution mechanism. Without a bilateral agreement, we have no chance. To me as a private business person, taking control of our own agenda gives me an advantage over not having anything. We think that's a positive thing.
The other side is that the Trade Commissioner Service allows us to know what the rules are in these countries. They're very complex. When the disputes involve customs and regulations, the service can give us access to government officials whom we, as SMEs in Canada, would otherwise have no chance of reaching. In my Algerian example, the embassy was able to reach the head of the health authority and get him to recognize that there was no problem with this shipment, and the shipment was let in. We could not get that access as an SME.