International Trade committee  That's the average from 2019 to 2022 per year, in U.S. dollars.

International Trade committee  I don't see potash as a top ten export. Nevertheless, I'm not sure what their MFN duty rate is on potash. I could check for you.

International Trade committee  I'm not entirely certain about the oil trade in terms of what goes and what comes back, but l'll look into it.

International Trade committee  Honestly, I don't know enough about it. I'd have to look into it. That might be a question we could pose to the ambassador when he comes back. We could close the loop with him in terms of providing a more fulsome answer in terms of what the regulations are in Ecuador on that.

International Trade committee  Traditionally, when you talk about free trade agreements, it's a lot about trading goods and trading services. Over the last number of decades, we have expanded that trade environment to include trade and gender, trade and SMEs, and trade and indigenous peoples. These are the “trade and” issues that we often talk about.

International Trade committee  It very much depends on the chapter and on what is being negotiated. I think many of those chapters are based on co-operation and are not subject to dispute settlement. It's very much the case that both countries are like-minded on certain issues. It provides you with the opportunity—the framework, if you will—to have those discussions and to set those up.

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. As I had mentioned during my opening statement, I think that there will be some economic benefits in the FTA. They're small; there's no question. Ecuador-Canada trade right now is not huge, but at the same time, our chief economist's office estimates that there will be positive economic benefits in the amount of a GDP increase of about $83 million for Canada by 2030 and Ecuador's could increase by almost $50 million over the same time period.

International Trade committee  I think it would be helpful to hear from our ambassador on that particular point, but what we have noted during the preliminary discussions with Ecuador is a government and partner that is very willing to engage in the negotiations that we would look at, whether they're on the goods side, services, investments, the environment or financial services—all of the areas we would traditionally put in an FTA.

International Trade committee  Colombia and Mexico.

International Trade committee  That's an excellent point. I would especially look at our western provinces, as well, in that regard, just based on location, transportation costs, etc. I would also add Chile in there, which is a bit further south. There's the recognition that South America is a large market that's been untapped, frankly, from a broader Canadian perspective.

International Trade committee  I hope I understood your question correctly. From an overall trade negotiation perspective, I think we definitely have a good base of knowledge from which we work. Our negotiators get experience through the various negotiations, whether that's the U.K., India, Indonesia or ASEAN.

International Trade committee  During the consultation?

International Trade committee  During the consultations we heard from most export interests. We didn't hear from any Canadian companies that had an interest in importing. If I understood correctly, your question has to do with the links between...

International Trade committee  In fact I've had broad consultation, everyone with an export interest and a import interest, of course, was consulted. We did not hear any concerns about the competition from any producers or exporters in Ecuador.

International Trade committee  Our consultation process is one that we usually use, as was mentioned earlier. The minister made the announcement of a notice of intent in Parliament, and then we launched the consultation process, I think it was on for 30 days through the Canada Gazette process. As I mentioned previously, we received a number of emails and letters from interested parties.