Thank you, Chair, and I'd like to thank our guests. Welcome back, both of you, to our committee.
I appreciate your testimony. It gives me some opportunity to reflect on how I want to understand better your probably divergent thoughts on the TPP.
We've studied this. We've had folks who have made representations to us before on a variety of trade agreements that we've looked at. It's interesting, and CETA is a good example. You made a brief reference to it, Mr. Geist. CETA is an example where the provinces are in step with the federal government. They've been consulted. I'm not hearing any leaks from the provincial governments about what they like or don't like about the CETA agreement. I certainly hear some things from the municipalities, but certainly not from the provinces. I'll presume that they've made certain commitments in their dialogue. I'm not sure if these are consultations or briefings or a mix—frankly, I don't know—but at certain points when a government wants to get more information from an organization or share some information to get more information, I would presume that kind of thing would be in confidence. It would seem logical to me that you would sign some kind of privacy or confidentiality agreement, because I wonder....
Maybe this is a question for you, Mr. Geist. I'm trying to understand this better. Perhaps you could give me some insights on this. What do you think the diplomatic fallout for Canada might be if we were releasing TPP documents or segments when several other countries involved aren't participating, particularly before there's a final draft. Do you have any sense of...? I presume you've been involved in negotiations before, but what impact would that have on Canada's negotiating position, or even its credibility?
That's a very sincere question. I'd appreciate it if you would give me your thoughts on that.