Thank you for your question. I think the cluster or sector approach is probably the way to go. As Mr. Easter mentioned previously, the scale of Chinese demand, and Asian demand more broadly, is sometimes so overwhelming that our companies—whether in the commodities, the manufacturing, or the services sector—find it very difficult to meet those needs and can only meet those needs sometimes by being part of a consortium, or part of a large project that in many cases is not linked to Canada. It may be an American consortium or a European consortium to which a Canadian manufacturer is supplying a particular widget, technology, or service.
I think it's very important that we take that broader approach, find big projects, assemble consortia, assemble industry alliances, look for counterparts in Asia that have interests in this broader range of services and products, and then try to market en masse, if you will. It's a different way of doing things. It's also, I think, sometimes difficult for individual companies to take that approach because they lose a bit of control. You know they have to be part of a different group and so on. But I think that's one way to go.
I am a firm believer in reciprocity, but we have to be specific about what we mean when we talk about reciprocity, rather than use it either as an excuse for not doing anything or as a reason to criticize trading partners. That's why I think it's so propitious that we have this opportunity to begin thinking about a free trade agreement with China, because now we can tell them exactly what areas of reciprocity we are looking for, and how we can get our markets into their products.
On the question of environment and labour and so on, we have to maintain the standards that Canadians expect of our companies, and when production is done in Canada. I believe we have little or no control over labour, environmental, and other softer issues in trading partner countries. I think our best hope there is that, by example and by the process of economic development, these countries will demand for themselves higher standards for the benefit of their own people. In China, we see that happening on a daily basis.