Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's important. Mr. Virani brought up the chronology. I remember in 2006, I was the parliamentary secretary for industry in the Harper government. We got an agreement. I'm glad you were there near the end.
We then had the original TPP, which people forget was the original NAFTA renegotiation. It was Mr. Obama's deal. It was an all-in deal. Our Prime Minister walked away from it and aggravated a lot of our trading partners. I worried about that at the time.
However, there was some news that seemed to be positive on March 10, 2016. I would like to read with you an article from Reuters:
The ongoing U.S.-Canadian trade “irritant” over softwood lumber is expected to be resolved soon, both countries leaders said on Thursday regarding the years-long fight over pine and other such soft wood.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking at a joint press conference, said the issue came up at their meeting at the White House but that negotiations were ongoing.
I want to come back to that. The article continues:
“I’m confident that we are on a track towards resolving this irritant in the coming weeks and month,” Trudeau said of the trade dispute, which stems from an expired 2006 softwood lumber export agreement.
Obama added: “This issue of softwood lumber will get resolved in some fashion.... It’s been a longstanding, bipartisan irritant....
That was in 2016. Negotiations were ongoing. Mr. Obama and Trudeau instructed Michael Froman, whom you may remember, and Chrystia Freeland to avoid another protracted dispute over softwood lumber and report back within 100 days.
Are you aware of what the results were of those meetings with Mr. Froman and Madam Freeland? Did they meet?