We work very closely with Export Development Canada. And again, I would never come before this committee without praising EDC and saying how important it is to the exporting community. With it we did a survey of opportunities in BRIC countries, especially South America. The basic problem is that Brazil and Argentina are erecting barriers to trade at every turn. Their primary concern is China, but in essence they're putting in labelling requirements and product safety requirements that are entirely spurious.
The Argentinians have recently lost GSP, general system of preferences, access into the United States because they're marauders. They are not acting according to normal trade. The WTO has sanctioned them recently as well.
That's the sort of thing we're looking for. We recognize that the opportunities are in bilateral trading agreements now. I have no criticism of that whatsoever; it is about taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. But you shouldn't underestimate the impact this has. When we surveyed our companies, we found that the major impediment to growing in BRIC countries was new barriers to trade being erected by those countries. So in point of fact, if you're going to develop a product here, the fact of the matter is that you will be producing a lot of it in China, and you can't really access Brazil.
Those are my remarks.