Thank you for the question. I think it should be clear from my remarks that you have to make a distinction between international trade and trade deals. Trade deals, increasingly, encroach upon matters that are only peripherally related to trade. Most of the low-hanging fruit of trade liberalization has already been harvested. Both Canada and Europe have very low average tariffs. There are tariff peaks and you've heard about them today. Yes, of course, I wish our exporters every success. I think trade is vital to the Canadian economy, but I'm very concerned that under the rubric of trade agreements we have inserted these very harmful provisions like investor-state dispute settlement and patent term extensions, which, I think you would have to agree, are actually the exact opposite of free trade. They restrict competition and they increase costs to consumers.
On November 24th, 2016. See this statement in context.