Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister, for being here with us today.
One of the concerns I have, coming from a manufacturing area, is with the loss of well-paying value-added jobs and how we reclaim them. The Canadian Commercial Corporation is one of the funded agencies that's supposed to help, but it's reducing its requests by $500,000. I'm wondering what your vision is with regard to manufacturing and trade.
In 2005 this country had a $15.9 billion trade imbalance as a deficit in trade of manufactured goods. In 2006 it went to $27.9 billion; in 2007 it went to $32.3 billion; in 2008 it went to $58.7 billion; in 2009 it went to $75.2 billion. Finally, in the last statistics available there is a trade deficit of $80.8 billion for manufactured goods from our country.
Perhaps you could highlight your specific strategies to reverse this trend. We should be more than just the hewers of logs and stewards of oil, shipping out raw and natural resources. Our value-added industries are certainly struggling, and I'd like to hear about your vision with regard to international trade and how we reverse these numbers since your administration has come into power.