International Trade committee  --but they were free traders, and this is called Hávamál. If you need some wisdom, then you can look in this book.

International Trade committee  On behalf of the delegation, I thank you very much for a very good meeting. Mr. Chairman, I would like to give you a little token of gratitude. Free traders was a saying of the Vikings. They did a bit more than free trade--

International Trade committee  I think Canada should emphasize free trade agreements. As we have mentioned, we have tried to be as progressive as possible and to find agreements where we can. Sometimes it takes time, as you all know. It's sometimes better to take fewer steps than none at all. But free trade agreements are definitely something that I think every nation should try to emphasize.

International Trade committee  I will skip the oil. We don't have that trouble at home. We have a lot of hot water, but no oil. When it comes to trade and social affairs, this is something I think you will never...even though we are quite pleased with the performance we have had, Iceland is no heaven. And even though it has only a 1.2% unemployment rate, for example, and the GDP per person has gone up, there are always things that, while I wouldn't call them a struggle, are things you have to be aware of, like helping the poorest and giving them a chance in life.

International Trade committee  For the largest agreement, the EEA agreement, you have the EEA court. Individual firms can go to that court with issues and disputes. It has been working quite effectively. We have had to change a lot of things in Iceland because of the ruling of that court. It's the one that is for the biggest area, the free trade area that we are in.

International Trade committee  They are appointed, one from each country. They are in effect the whole year long. It's quite a big body, which is like another court. It's something that came out of negotiations with the EFTA countries. When there were more EFTA countries at that time, it meant they established the EEA agreement.

International Trade committee  Well, I think Quebec, even though I don't know it in detail, has tremendous potential. I know there are proud and hard-working people there. If you look at the Icelandic example, even though I'm from the constituency of Reykjavik, I was brought up in a rural area and I know that quite well.

International Trade committee  If you like good fish, then we have plenty of it. As you know, fish is good for you, so I would recommend you buy some Icelandic fish. But the Icelandic economy is moving quite rapidly toward service. We export high-tech, and not much of the things we have been discussing today.

International Trade committee  He was asking about the position of the member states because of fisheries and agriculture--if that would be okay. When it comes to Iceland, we have never gone that far in negotiating with the EU about membership. I think it would be very difficult for a politician in Iceland to persuade the population that the fish and fish stocks would be better controlled by the European Union than by Icelanders.

International Trade committee  We like to think that we consult with the ones who are interested when it comes to a process like this one. You mentioned, for example, the agriculture sector and others when you were talking about the situation in our countries. It's difficult to say when you are keeping consumers in the loop.

International Trade committee  No, that hasn't been done. As we mentioned, I think I could say the majority of parliamentarians are very much in favour of free trade, although there could be some exceptions. Rather, in the question time in Parliament in the last years it has been questioned why this hasn't been done.

International Trade committee  The negotiation is not on a political level, it's on the foreign ministry or the EFTA secretariat level. I'm not familiar with how they keep people or industries informed. I admit I don't know how that's done. But in Parliament we haven't discussed this. It's very rare that we would discuss these things in specific detail.

International Trade committee  Speaking for Iceland, we have changed a lot toward the better in the last fifteen years. There are a few things that we have done. We have privatized a lot of companies, especially the financials, the banks, and so on and so forth. They used to be subsidized not that many years ago.

International Trade committee  Yes, thank you, and thank you for a wonderful meeting this morning. It was a very good meeting and a great start of our visit. I am an Icelander. We have a small population. I find it strange when you talk about Canada as being small or medium-sized. You have 32 million people, and we have 300,000 people.

International Trade committee  It's quite simple: we would never survive without free trade. It's just that simple. If I look at the history of our nation, the darkest years were when we didn't have free trade. Then the Icelanders were the poorest nation in Europe, the same as Albania now. Now we are one of the richest, and one of the main reasons is that we can participate in free trade areas and trade freely.