I'll keep my comments relatively short to enable more time for questions and answers. That might be a little bit more productive.
Thank you very much for the invitation. I'm really happy to comment on some of the economic benefits we see from CETA, this agreement, coupled with other free trade agreements that have already been negotiated. The other ongoing trade negotiations with Canada and India, Canada and Japan, and Canada and South Korea really do represent some of the best opportunities for Canadian companies to not only compete in open markets, but to compete fairly in open markets.
As a European master's graduate who studied public administration, what really strikes me is the skill with which the Canadian government and the trade negotiators were able to reach a very ambitious trade agreement. The EU took 45 years to reach agreement among themselves, and in just a few short years, the Canadian government was able to negotiate what I think is an even more liberalizing agreement.
Doing business in Europe can be fairly daunting. We've faced some pretty complex regulatory barriers. There are numerous product and testing certification procedures and other barriers that can make us slower to market and less competitive, so in BlackBerry's analysis, CETA certainly addresses a majority of the tariff, and more importantly, the non-tariff barriers to trade and investment.
At first glance, it also appears to ease the temporary entry of our employees who need to work across borders in order to support, service, and train our customers on our products.
We believe that the agreement's use of a negative list approach to services and labour mobility, and the fact that it actually “future-proofs” Canada in terms of most favoured nation should other countries reach more advantageous agreements, will ultimately facilitate the tech industry in terms of doing business and in its ability, as I said earlier, to compete not only in an open market, but also in a fair market, especially when you do consider those non-tariff trade barriers.
We operate in over 100 countries so we're certainly versed in the types of shenanigans—that's the best word that comes to mind—that other countries can play in terms of protecting or extracting concessions in terms of operating in their country.
We realize it's still an agreement in principle and there's more work to be done. We encourage and support the government's efforts in finalizing the agreement.
As I said, what will be particularly interesting to us are the regulations affecting business travel, product certification, and especially a timely and effective dispute settlement procedure.
I'll sum up really quickly and point out that in relative comparison, Canada's size limits our economic and political influence on the world stage, so we need to work smarter than other countries. However, that smaller size is also a competitive advantage because it enables us to be more nimble and responsive to changes on the global social and economic stage. We're really reliant, and all tech companies are reliant, on constant innovation, but we're also reliant on modern, enabling and competitive public policies from our governments. We believe, in this case, that CETA represents sound, modern public policy and will enable Canadian companies to compete effectively on an open market.
Thank you.