Thank you for your question.
My apologies, but I do not speak French.
I think the offer of a free trade agreement from the Chinese is quite extraordinary. It allows us to begin, exactly as you said, the step-by-step, incremental approach to understanding all the opportunities and all the threats that Canada would face, if we were in fact to have such an agreement.
The first thing we have to do is to respond to the Chinese that we want to have that kind of conversation. I don't want to underestimate the difficulty in terms of the negotiations, as well as the political support that's needed domestically, for the free trade agreement to take place, but the door has been opened in a way that it hasn't been opened for any other western country. Most other western countries are pleading to have this opportunity. We have been offered it.
I am really not as pessimistic as you might seem to be on the manufacturing sector in the sense that most manufacturing imports to Canada already come into this country either tariff-free or with very low tariffs. So I can't see what more we would give the Chinese in terms of tariff-free access. We're not going to lower our standards, for sure, in terms of quality and safety and so on. That's non-negotiable. So in terms of border barriers, there's not a lot to give.
Secondly, there isn't a fundamental competitive threat between China and Canada in the manufacturing sector. We don't make toys, we don't make shoes...or we don't make many shoes, I should say. There are some companies here in B.C. that make shoes, and in Ontario and Quebec and elsewhere, but there isn't a fundamental clash like there is between China and the United States.
I think there is compatibility and a lot of opportunity for a mutually beneficial deal.