International Trade committee  Thank you. As you put, sir, a little better than I've been able, there are some clear benefits to Canada from obtaining observer status. I'll set out three of them right now: one, it deepens our relationship with Pacific Alliance members, which is already good; two, it leverages

International Trade committee  I'll pass that to Mr. MacKay.

International Trade committee  Again, I'll answer briefly and then turn to my colleague Mr. MacKay to add to that. The Pacific Alliance and TPP are separate initiatives. They're complementary. They have some shared objectives, but involvement in one does not preclude involvement in the other. The composition

International Trade committee  Canada has a privileged relationship now with the Pacific Alliance members because of our web of FTAs and the extent to which we're in their markets already—and they're in ours, to be frank—and because of the richness of our bilateral relations with each of those member countries

International Trade committee  There is an analysis that I set out in my opening remarks about the attraction of observership.

International Trade committee  Since the Pacific Alliance was created in 2011, we have been engaged in analyzing what the Pacific Alliance is and what interest it holds for us. We have been engaged in discussions with Pacific Alliance members about what the Pacific Alliance is since 2011.

International Trade committee  There is no one document that I would call a cost-benefit analysis of observer status. There is a series of internal documents, conversations we have had, about what the Pacific Alliance is and what interest it holds for Canada, including Canada's observership, since the beginnin

International Trade committee  The analysis is not that complicated; it's the analysis—

International Trade committee  No, I'm sorry—

International Trade committee  It's the analysis that I attempted to set out to you in my opening remarks, and that I attempted to answer previously. Namely, observership is something that has a very low cost, and the benefit is that it allows us greater access to Pacific Alliance members to ask those question

International Trade committee  To date, it's been the cost of attending meetings as observers. When we talk to Pacific Alliance members, which is part of our normal business, it involves their travelling to Canada and our using our embassy network. It also involves me and Neil and the whole team travelling to

International Trade committee  That, sir, would be the analysis associated with moving to full membership, and as I said we're not yet at that stage, because the Pacific Alliance is not yet clear about what the full threshold for membership is. They're still in internal negotiations. To be frank, on many of th

International Trade committee  It's actually a very complicated question. Brazil is its own powerhouse in the region, a member of the BRICs, as you know.

International Trade committee  Yes. As a result of Brazil's ascendancy—and, to be frank, Mexico's ascendancy—you're seeing all sorts of different sub-regional groupings emerge. I wouldn't ascribe to Pacific Alliance the primary motivation of counterbalancing Brazil's economic weight, necessarily; I think tha

International Trade committee  It's a very, very good question. It takes a lot more policy analysis than I'm capable of doing right now, in the two seconds I have to think about it. I think it's clear, or to us it's clear, that Canada brings a lot to the table to Pacific Alliance. That might be an interesting