Mr. Chair, I know where the hon. member's heart is. It is with agriculture. I can tell that already. I look forward to working with him over a period of time.
The reason we are going to Geneva to try to get subsidies lowered is that if we want to go head to head with the Europeans we have to talk $70 billion to $80 billion to $90 billion. If we want to go toe to toe with the Americans, we had better ante up $20 billion. We just do not have that kind of money in Canada. The better thing to do is to try to get international subsidies down, and that is why the serious negotiations are taking place right now, and to try to get rules at the WTO to enforce them.
I agree with the member, one of the weaknesses in the past has been that when someone has a countervailing opportunity, it is peanuts to penalize someone who is breaking the rules.
Part of the discussion and part of the sticking point in Geneva is to make sure that the rules, the modalities that we are negotiating, actually have some teeth to them. That is one of the things we are keen on in our negotiations. It is not just to say that we should all be boy scouts about this, but to say that we do not mind being boy scouts as long as we have an ability collectively to take the big boys out and thrash them when they need it and have it coming.