Madam Speaker, if I understand the question correctly, the hon. member was looking at the situation that Peru was in when many of these negotiations began in 2002 and the situation that Peru is in today.
I already mentioned that Peru's economy is growing at about 9% a year. That is certainly a record that many countries would be very jealous of and should be very jealous of.
The other issue that we need to understand is Canada's whole development of not just foreign policy but trade policy. When we came to government, the Prime Minister made a clear commitment to pay more emphasis to the Americas. That is not just that longstanding relationship between Canada and the United States and Mexico, but beyond the NAFTA borders where there really are many more opportunities for Canadian companies throughout all the provinces.
Certainly, our re-engagement with the Americas in Central America, in the Caribbean and in South America is very positive for Canadian business. There are tremendous opportunities there. The long-term prognosis of a stable, secure trading partner of proven stature in South America is extremely important, not just for our trading relationship with Peru but our trading relationships with other South American countries. We signed a free trade agreement with Colombia as well. We have signed a science and technology agreement with Brazil.
Those agreements are all extremely important to our re-engagement with the Americas, to our emphasis on Canadian trade, to the number of companies within Canada that are doing business directly, especially in the extractive sector in Peru, and for the opportunity to sell our manufactured goods and agricultural goods. It is a two-way relationship. Peru will also benefit from our increased emphasis and our demonstration of that through this FTA with the Peruvian government.