Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to the minister, the deputy, and officials. It's a pleasure to have you here at the international trade committee today.
Mr. Chair, that I'm going to share my time with Mr. Shipley, so I'll try not to take all of Bev's time.
Minister Fast, you said a couple of things in your opening statement. First of all, you said that we cannot rest on our laurels, and I totally agree. Then you spoke a little bit about past, present, and future trade agreements, and that brings me to my question.
With the global recession and continuing weakness in the American economy, although we've seen a little bit of revitalization in the American economy recently, how important is it to diversify our markets, in your opinion? And how does that compare to the future of Canadian trade?