Thank you for the question.
As I'm sure you've taken notice, the world economy has undergone a dramatic change. We've gone through the worst economic crisis in half a century. Markets around the world have been challenged by that crisis. Even the emerging markets, the fastest growing markets around the world, have struggled to keep up with their traditional patterns and rates of growth.
Canada is not immune to the winds of economic change blowing around the globe. We do know for a fact that trade investment, more open and freer trade and investment going forward, is going to be one of the keys not in only unleashing Canada's economy but also in allowing the global economy to recover from what has been a very difficult last five to six years.
Even as recently as this past March, our trade figures, as you know, have bounced back to a surplus. It would be a mistake to focus on any given month or even year to get a broader picture of the opportunities that exist for Canada to expand its opportunities around the globe.
My job as trade minister is to provide new opportunities for Canadian companies to be successful all around the world in selling their goods, selling their services, and selling their expertise. I can tell you from personal experience, having travelled to many of our key trading partners, having also been involved at the World Trade Organization, within APEC, and at the OECD, that Canada has opportunities to work hard to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to allow Canadians to really benefit from growth opportunities that are all around us.