Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague from London-Middlesex. He is a hard working and outstanding member of Parliament who has in the past and who continues to truly represent his constituents.
I will first share with my colleague some of the initiatives and some of the things the government has done so far in the Middle East. In January of this year the government opened the embassy in Beirut. Also we have ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement with Israel and we have approached other countries in the Middle East to have free trade agreements with them. Our support for the private sector is very strong. We are trying to help it explore markets in different parts of the Middle East.
I had the great pleasure of participating in the World Economic Summit in Jordan where in excess of 20 Canadian companies participated. I have also taken a trade mission to the Middle East on a number of occasions. I agree with my colleague that the Middle East is an emerging market that will be the Giant Tiger of Asia in the year 2000 and beyond.
His suggestion for a trade centre is an interesting one. I will be sure to take it to our officials. We have some of the finest people representing us in the Middle East with embassies from one end of the Middle East to the other. We have trade commissioners working extremely hard. At the Department of Foreign Affairs we have a division working day in and day out.
The people in the division responsible for the Middle East and North Africa work 24 hours a day trying to promote trade and help to improve relations between Canada and these parts of the world.
We are delighted to see my colleague take an interest in the area of trade in the region and I would be more than happy to work with him on an ongoing basis.