With no agreement in place, Canadian export companies often face higher barriers than those faced by foreign companies coming into Canada. Having an agreement helps ensure a level playing field. It enables our companies to export in certain sectors.
We were talking about climate change earlier, and I would like to come back to that. Two years ago, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal led a mission to Japan to look into green technologies. I think it is really important to come back to this because our markets and sectors are full of small players who develop important technologies and would benefit from promoting them abroad because our domestic market is very small.
This agreement addresses climate change and its repercussions. Climate change is a global issue. Montreal is lucky to have a centre of excellence in that sector, but it does not have a large enough domestic market to develop it. The countries involved in the partnership will have a high demand in that sector. It's an excellent idea to help our SMEs export their technologies.