As you mentioned, in May of this year, Canada formally notified the DEPA parties, the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement parties, of Canada's interest in formally acceding to this agreement. I'm specifically referring to New Zealand, Chile and Singapore.
It is a stand-alone digital trade agreement. It's really a novel trade policy instrument that's positioned to support digitally enabled commerce around the globe but also contributes to a broader dialogue on a range of technology issues of interest to both industry and consumers here in Canada, particularly to allow our small and medium-sized enterprises an opportunity to engage in this increasingly enlarged digital space.
Building on the CPTPP digital trade e-commerce chapters, the parties I mentioned earlier are looking to expand this trade agreement to take on new members. Canada has formally notified the parties of our interest in acceding to the agreement. We're looking to work with the DEPA parties to establish a working group, hopefully, in the weeks ahead. We know there are several other economies that are interested in acceding. We'd like to get ahead of the queue in that regard.