Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would suggest that we go forward with an interim report. That's just my own feeling. I feel that there's a lot of good information that we can include in this interim report. In my estimation, one would be that the U.K. is reporting that this is basically just a rollover of CETA. I think that would be important information to include in the interim report, that we basically have a rollover of CETA.
Another thing that might be interesting in an interim report is the difference between what the U.K. offered in the beginning, which was basically 95% no tariff versus 98%. That's for preferential access. It would be interesting to see what we gave up to gain the extra 3%.
The other thing we can include in this interim report is maybe the importance of more transparency in negotiations. This would be over a number of years, even before 2015. There needs to be more information, there needs to be more consultation, and it needs to be more open and transparent. In an interim report, we can include the importance of that.
I have the utmost respect for my Liberal colleagues, for sure, and when we were in government as well, it's very difficult to ask members of the government to defend an interim trade deal when they know 0% about it. If you at least have some information, it would be good. It would be good as a government to be able to defend that.
When I read in some of the U.K. publications that this trade deal is going to be good for Scottish beef and Scottish salmon, I raise a bit of an eyebrow, considering that we're supposed to be the beef exporting country in this deal. It's a good result for U.K. wine and U.K. spirits; we can see the spirit side of it. Then, in a bit of what I don't want to call a sovereignty issue, but in Ontario, I read in a U.K. paper that they're talking about more competitive access to the LCBO, which is a provincial regulator.
There's a lot of value in an interim report and it could give guidance to future deals. It could give guidance to the long-term deal between Canada and the U.K.
That's a long ramble, but that's a little about what's on my mind on the value of an interim report and another trade deal.