International Trade committee  Thank you for that question. Having worked in Canadian trade policy for over 25 years, I think I can say that the objective of diversifying export markets has always been key to Canada. It has been a struggle, but it has always been a key objective. The government now has in pl

International Trade committee  Well, we've completed the negotiations at this point. As part of our effort, we had an eye on where the Americans were in their process with Peru, and that certainly had a lot to do with our efforts to pursue this in a timely manner.

International Trade committee  Yes. Like Canada, the EU started with exploratories with all of the Andean Community and decided that it wasn't able to move forward with the whole community and is now negotiating with Colombia and Peru. That's my understanding.

International Trade committee  Well, we're done at this point. We had our eye on those complexities, as I said, and when you're negotiating arrangements like this, yes, you're concerned about larger partners that are already in there or are going in.

International Trade committee  February 1, only a few months ago. The economic crisis that we're experiencing now certainly adds additional urgency to our overall efforts in this regard.

International Trade committee  Well, in the last few years Peru has been engaged in macro-economic reforms, getting its fiscal house in order, opening up its borders. As you can see, we're not the only free trade partner it has been actively engaged with but clearly the U.S. was a priority, and Peru identified

International Trade committee  Okay.

International Trade committee  Thank you for introducing our team here. We're here to respond to any questions you may have about Bill C-24. We're very pleased to have this opportunity to speak to this bill, which is an act to implement the Canada-Peru trade agreement and parallel agreements on labour and en

International Trade committee  Thank you, Chair. Actually, I've been with the Department of Finance all along.