You've quoted at length from several CCCE documents, so I thank you for that. I would just simply add that a positive trade balance is of course something that all Canadians want to see, but it isn't the whole picture.
We've been encouraging Statistics Canada to improve their measure of services trade and also the foreign affiliate data so that we can add that to the statistic you've pointed out on merchandise trade. The key point there is this: don't look at just one month's number. Look in the aggregate, not least because Statistics Canada often restates monthly numbers. We went from a surplus of $2 billion in July to a deficit of $600 million in August, but we still want to see the Canadian economy on track for about a $45-billion annualized rate.
Prices do matter. You could see volumes stay the same or even increase, but export numbers actually go down if we receive lower prices for our goods. That includes energy, which is a major component of our export numbers, in addition to things like auto parts, which can definitely shift monthly numbers.
So price matters. That means we want as many customers as possible for our products, and that's why this deal with South Korea—and indeed, more diversified trade with Asia—is essential so that we have more consumers and hopefully can get a more competitive and higher price for our products.