Foreign Affairs committee  I'll happily offer some comments on both points. With respect to the seal hunt, I think the Canadian position internationally on this particular issue is well known. It's also well understood, from a Canadian vantage point, that the ban on seal products by the European Union is inconsistent with their international trade obligations.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much for that excellent question. It's one that we've had to grapple with following the adoption in Europe of the Lisbon Treaty, because the treaty created a number of new institutions in the European Union and also various roles for new players within the EU structures.

Foreign Affairs committee  We've been investing, departmentally, a considerable amount of effort in maintaining and expanding our bilateral relations with Turkey, both in terms of political-level dialogue and in terms of engagement on commercial and economic matters. Turkey, as you know, is an important G-20 country.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Indeed, the 27 member states of the European Union are ones in which we have focused a lot of attention in developing and maintaining a high degree of bilateral relations, regular contact, commercial relations, and investment relations, but you're absolutely right.