Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Clark, I very much appreciated how frank you were on many points. Given that I am my party's critic on small enterprises and tourism, I have seen that there seem to be a number of obstacles for small enterprises preventing stronger entrepreneurship. You mentioned the problem of competition with the United States, including the fact that the Obama administration had a very ambitious plan for increasing exports. We may also think about the BRIC countries and focus, strictly speaking, on China, a country that steps in a great deal to support both its domestic market and entrepreneurship.
We are studying the trade commissioner service instrument. Actually, I would like to thank Mr. Poloz of Export Development Canada for being here.
You spoke about being present by first signing a free-trade agreement. I'm wondering what it may mean since, in my opinion, Canada does little to support its domestic market. I'm not just talking about supporting businesses, but also developing and maintaining infrastructures. We see that China, Brazil and the US invest heavily in infrastructures. With respect to China, we could also mention that China's loans to businesses are practically donations.
I'm wondering why we should necessarily sign a free-trade agreement if, coupled with the trade commissioner service, Canada does not have an intervention plan to support this foreign trade from a strong domestic market.