Prime Minister Stephen Harper is flying to Colombia just after 8 a.m. Friday to take part in the sixth Summit of the Americas.

The main goal of the visit is to secure a seat for Canada in the trans-pacific partnership.

The partnership is basically an invite-only free trade agreement that already has nine countries on board.

It could be the largest economic deal the country has ever signed.

“It would include NAFTA and potentially Japan, South Korea and Australia … a whole series of countries on the Pacific Rim,” Ian Lee, with the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, said. “There is increasing recognition that this is where growth is taking place. This is the future.”

It would create jobs, lower prices and result in billions of dollars in economic activity.

But Canada failed to get an invitation because countries like the U.S. want to abolish our supply management system for eggs, dairy and poultry.

Lee said Harper will lobby hard behind closed doors for an exemption but likely won’t get it, so in the end Canada may have to make a sacrifice.