Absolutely. Mercosur is an opportunity for a number of reasons. We talked about its GDP, the size of the population alone. We already do a significant amount of trade.
Beyond that, they are closed countries to the rest of the world. There are no G7 countries that have any FTAs with them yet, for example. Mercosur has been talking as a bloc to the European Union. We've been hearing for a while now in the press every couple of days that they're almost there. They are pretty close, according to the articles and reports coming out on that.
They have also been talking with a number of other countries about potentially launching trade. The atmosphere has changed quite a bit in recent years in those countries, in particular in Brazil and Argentina, where the recent governments have been more open to trade and diversification.
Mercosur has a number of FTAs and other preferential trade agreements within the Latin America region, but not much outside. I think that's one reason that negotiating with them, or the possibility of negotiating with them, is so enticing as well. It's the early mover advantage, and it is establishing rules that would address any existing barriers.
On tariff barriers alone, right now they have some of the highest applied MFN tariffs, and just bringing some of those down would be a huge advantage to Canada.