With the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle only four weeks away, this would send a strong signal. It is an opportunity that the countries of the Americas must not miss. Our countries have been working intensely within the FTAA on this issue, since the San Jose ministerial meeting. It should be noted that many of the measures were suggested by the business community itself in previous ABF meetings. Within the hemisphere we now have the opportunity to provide leadership and to be innovative in this area at the global level, through a parallel and permanent exercise for negotiating and implementing an ever broader set of business facilitation measures.
Electronic commerce is an issue in which our collective experience is just beginning to evolve.
How we should proceed in this area is one of the major challenges facing ministers this week here in Toronto. Before ending I would like to reiterate the tremendous importance that the knowledgeable support of business people has for our hemispheric integration process. The exercise in which we are now engaged is in fact the most ambitious one that this hemisphere has ever undertaken. And with your support I know that we will go on to achieve the signing and ratification of the FTAA treaty. Anything less would be surely a waste of our wonderful potential.