Mr. Speaker, the member has raised two very important issues the government has taken the lead on.
With respect to the Helms-Burton bill our Prime Minister no less, as well as the Minister for International Trade and our ambassador in Washington have expressed very clearly the objections of the Canadian government to that bill. We continue to consult with the leaders in industry who may be adversely affected by the bill, as well as some of our allies in the Caribbean, Latin America and the European Union to try to get a consensus to put pressure on the United States to abandon the bill. We believe the bill is extraterritorial. We believe the bill will have the unwanted impact of slapping American allies in trade for an action they had absolutely nothing to do with, which was the unfortunate and condemnable shooting down of the two planes by the Cuban government.