I hear the member for Quebec, who is also extremely suspicious of trade. They always have a problem with the improvements that we are trying to bring about to liberalize trade.
It is somewhat ironic is this distrust by a few parliamentarians is changing an attitude that had so far been relatively open.
The vast majority of our fellow citizens is very aware of international trade issues. Our economy has made tremendous progress since we signed the free trade agreement with the United States and Mexico.
I remind the hon. member that it is not the U.S. presidency that changed Canada's approach on NAFTA and produced two side agreements on labour standards and the environment. These changes occurred because there was, at the same time, a change of Government in Canada. It is when the Liberal Party took office in 1993, at the same time that Mr. Clinton became president of the United States, that we, as a government, chose to add side agreements to NAFTA. We are the ones who took the initiative of proposing an improvement to what had been negotiated by the previous government. We are the ones who negotiated with Chile side agreements similar to those that we developed for the free trade agreement.
I should point out that yesterday morning, when I signed the bilateral free trade agreement with Costa Rica, my colleagues, the Minister of Labour and the Minister of the Environment, also signed side agreements.
It is from this side that leadership and innovation in international trade made its way to Buenos Aires. Any minister who took part in the meeting in Buenos Aires will confirm that had it not been for Canada's leadership the texts of the preliminary agreement would not be in the process of being released.