Mr. Speaker, coming from a region of the country that relies on the federal government to set the deals for resource extraction in my region, I know perfectly well how difficult it is to achieve results, whether they come from side deals or are straightforward.
In many cases, it is simply that money talks. The deal works out in this fashion: people who do not have the advantage lose out. To me it is clear that what one has to look at is the good intent of the government one is dealing with, whether one is talking about one deal or another.
It really comes down to the track record of the government one is dealing with. What is the best indicator of future performance? It is past performance.
What we see in Panama is a past performance that is pretty straightforward. What will future performance be? It will be somewhat similar.