International Trade committee  But there was no need for a detailed cost-benefit analysis. It's more at the foreign policy level that we made the analysis, that is, does it make sense to join the Pacific Alliance as observers, an alliance that consists of four of our closest like-minded partners in the region?

International Trade committee  Of course, there are written records of our thinking on Pacific Alliance. That's a normal part of our analysis. Sorry, I'm not trying to avoid your question. It's just that you're asking it in a way that is quite specific, as if there were one document with a cost-benefit analys

International Trade committee  I will take that back and see if there is something beyond what I told the committee at the beginning that would be useful on our move to observer status last October.

International Trade committee  That's a very good question. I don't think we're at the stage of answering that. As I said, there are two purposes or major objectives of the Pacific Alliance. Objective one is deeper integration among the members, and objective two is reaching out to the Pacific. Our approach t

International Trade committee  I think I went through a list of observers. Those are ones that have stepped up to become observers already. From the Asia–Pacific region there's Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. To go back to my earlier reference to like-minded countries, that they are among the most like-mind

International Trade committee  We're just doing inter-divisional consultations here. Do you want to talk about what we're doing on mining?

International Trade committee  I've been a diplomat for a while now, and I won't call “like-minded” a term of art, but it's a term we use to signify countries that frequently take common positions internationally on issues of concern to us, like protection of human rights or liberalization of trade. It's not p

International Trade committee  I think that's a very valid question. It is true that in the Latin American region for a number of decades many, many countries were marked with violent pasts, full-on conflict, military and others, and civilian dictatorships as well. I don't know what timeline to put on this—I

International Trade committee  I think it's difficult for us to assess right now the benefits of the candidacy of their other observers. We're focusing on our relations with the Pacific Alliance and Pacific Alliance countries. I'm unable to assess the membership of other observers. We have an edge in that we

International Trade committee  We're still in the exploratory phase. We haven't gone out to stakeholders yet, because we don't have the details to go out to stakeholders with.

International Trade committee  We did a cost-benefit analysis for observer status. That has put us in a position to get more insight into what the discussions are amongst the Pacific Alliance members. Once we have more clarity on what the threshold is for membership, what the agreements are, and what the areas

International Trade committee  We're not there yet. The Pacific Alliance is not there yet.

International Trade committee  The other countries that have sought and been granted observer status to date are Australia, Spain, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala, New Zealand, and Japan. They have been granted observer status. This is fairly recent. We have been an observer since last October. None of these is

International Trade committee  Our interests on the immigration movement of peoples front with Pacific Alliance countries, as with all countries, are twofold: first, to ensure the integrity and security of our immigration system and our national security, but at the same time to facilitate movement of people w

International Trade committee  Again, on conditions of membership, we know two things, and Pacific Alliance members know two things. The framework agreement that the Pacific Alliance states have adopted says that a country requesting accession must have a free trade agreement in effect with each of the parties