Thank you, Mr. Easter. That's a very good question.
I think one thing that has been keeping our economy out of recession and actually probably positioning Canada as one of the leading economies in the developed world is our natural resources sector. I know there has been some talk about that driving up the value of the dollar and affecting manufacturers in a negative way. I don't share that view. I think the resource sector has been supporting growth in the manufacturing sector, because as I indicated earlier, a significant proportion of these sectors purchase goods from the manufacturing sector in Canada.
That being said, I think increasingly our members are looking at diversifying their export markets. Our existing customers, and especially the United States, are not buying, and will not be buying in the foreseeable future, as much as they used to. If our companies want to grow, they need to look outside of North America for additional customers and for more business.
To that extent we're very supportive of the government's trade agenda in terms of dealing with trade barriers that Canadian companies are encountering in foreign markets.
For some of those markets, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, we have to be very strategic in how we look at this. We're certainly supportive of the negotiations with Japan moving forward. There's no shortage of trade barriers, as I mentioned earlier. Can we actually effectively address them in trade negotiations? I think it's interesting to note that Japan seems to be coming to this in good faith and they realize that their world has changed as well and they need to open up their market.
I think your question was about what needs to be done if we want this FTA to benefit our manufacturing sector. I think the good news is that there is some complementarity between our two economies and even in the manufacturing sector. As I said earlier, it's a mature market. There should be demand there for the kinds of goods we can produce.
In terms of the agreement, we certainly support an ambitious agreement that looks at tariffs, deals with non-tariff barriers, the movement of capital, and the movement of people, and looks at strengthening our dispute-settlement and dispute-resolution mechanisms. I think an ambitious agreement certainly holds potential.
When we talk to our members, I think there is some skepticism about Japan's ability to actually address some of those trade barriers, but then, not all of my members were on the delegation that Peter participated in, and it seemed, from what he was sharing, that it was an eye-opening visit.
So to that extent, I think we have a window of opportunity. I understand the government wanting to seize it. But at the same time, we have to be mindful that this is a market that for historical reasons our manufacturing sector has had a hard time with. It's not because we haven't tried. I think we've had persistent barriers, and to the extent that we can actually get rid of them, I think that would be great for our manufacturing sector, because it's a large industrial market.