I think that's a very timely question.
Minister Ng, last evening, chaired a dinner involving more than a dozen Canadian business people to talk specifically about the WTO and their views on the current challenges that are facing the organization. Some of the key themes that emerged from that discussion include the critical importance of the WTO for Canadian business.
The WTO, of course, governs the vast majority of our trading relationships. Although Canada has a number of free trade agreements in place with some of our key trading partners and 14 FTAs in force with 51 countries, that still leaves another hundred-plus WTO members who are not currently covered under any kind of preferential trade agreement.
In Canada, businesses, in particular, have expressed concerns regarding the impasse at the appellate body and are deeply concerned that Canada's rights at the WTO are undermined by that impasse, in particular vis-à-vis the United States.
We have also heard from Canadian business about the importance of ongoing negotiations in areas like agriculture, for example. E-commerce is another area that has been identified by Canadian business as very important and for which Canada is taking a very active role to try to bring their issues to the table.
I think that many countries have taken the WTO for granted over the last number of decades and have put the bulk of their focus on negotiating bilateral and regional free trade agreements, but the importance of the WTO, especially for a mid-sized country, really cannot be overstated.