Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thanks to our witnesses for being here today.
As we all know, South America is a very important, growing region in the world for Canada. Having travelled to the region over the last two years as parliamentary secretary at Global Affairs, I've heard first-hand from Canadian companies operating in the region, and I understand that there are tremendous growth opportunities. Two-way trade is over $20 billion and supports thousands of jobs here in Canada. We have multiple free trade agreements with countries in the region: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Peru, to name a few. Trade in the region creates opportunities for many Canadian sectors, as we heard today, including clean tech, energy, science, technology and innovation, life sciences, and agriculture and agri-food.
We heard Mr. Walker, in his opening remarks, mention that our trade agreement supports over 370,000 jobs directly and indirectly in the sector he highlighted through trade and local as well.
In the growing clean tech and renewables sector, we have jobs that are growing exponentially here in Canada, and our government is focused on building on that growth and momentum to unlock even more markets around the world.
Mr. Walker, you mentioned in your opening remarks that Ecuador presents potential for Canadian trade and industry. Can you speak to the impacts that our ambitious free trade agreements have had that have helped your industry achieve growth and trade diversity through markets around the world?