Mr. Speaker, I thought up until now that the Liberal Party actually supported a free trade agreement with Panama. The reason I thought it did was that the agreement offers important benefits for Canada. It certainly is important to those workers who are producing over $100 million in goods. We have not even talked about services. There are significant Canadian services that are exported into that marketplace. Also, of course, there is the prospect of further growth in trade. At the rate it has been growing, 20% over just two years, that is significant growth in trade.
Who has it been benefiting? It has been benefiting workers and machinery, those who are producing precious stones and metals, meat, aerospace products, minerals, fuels and oil, and vegetables. It includes our agriculture sector, those producing pulses and lentils, peas and frozen potato products. I know that is important in Atlantic Canada, for example. It includes electrical and electronic equipment, paper and paperboard, pharmaceuticals and I could go on. There is a significant diverse amount of Canadians who work in those sectors who stand to benefit and who already do benefit and stand to lose.
My understanding always was that the Liberal Party thought this was important, that it thought two and a half years since the signing of the agreement was a reasonable timeframe in which to actually decide to implement it and get the House to pass legislation. That is why I thought the Liberal Party was supportive. Apparently I am mistaken.