Thank you, and thank you, Chair, and Minister, great to see you here.
You'll find that this committee is a very well-functioning committee, well-behaved. We work well together, and we plan to continue doing that.
I do have some concerns in regard to NAFTA, to the renegotiated NAFTA that's coming forward. I know that the U.S. isn't your file, but Mexico is your file. I also have concerns in China, because there seems to be a progression to renew a trade deal with China at the same time as trying to do NAFTA. Because of the delink between you not being involved in the U.S. file, the understanding is that moving forward into China could actually have negative implications with our number one trading partner, the U.S. Have you taken that into consideration?
The other thing I want to draw to your attention is an article that came out in The Globe and Mail today. Robert Fife and Steven Chase are talking about a survey they have done where 88% of Canadians aren't comfortable with the prospects of deeper economic ties with China. They're talking specifically about state trading enterprises and giving them unfettered access to the Canadian market. The other concerns of course are democracy and human rights.
When we did a trade deal with Honduras, for example, democracy and human rights were front and centre. That was a big part of that trade deal. Then to hear our new ambassador basically saying that it's not clear whether human rights per se will be part of any trade agreement is very concerning.
Can you shed a little light on that aspect of it, because as you go down that road, I have a lot of concerns of us doing a trade agreement with China, and actually doing more harm with our existing trading partners by going down that avenue?