Frankly, I'm a diplomat, and I don't let that interfere with me either.
On the topic today of agricultural trade relations between our two countries, frankly, we think we have a very good relationship. It is our number one relationship, in many ways. We are each other's best markets for agricultural products. That has been growing ever since the FTA and NAFTA came into effect.
There are always many trade issues between us. In my foreign service career, I have dealt with many countries, and I've never seen such a list of issues, which we seem to be able to develop between us. But the thing with our relationship, that often is not the case with other countries, is that we try to find ways to.... We at least listen to each other and try to find solutions to the problems.
We realize that at times there are frustrations on your part. Many times you think it takes us a lot longer to do something than it should. But we do take our actions very seriously. We take our relationship with Canada very seriously. We try to do everything on the basis of science and on the basis of law. I think overall we have managed to do that.
One thing I mention as I travel around, and it's important for people to understand, is that in the case of the United States, we are just about everybody's best market for agricultural products, or at least a prime market. We face a lot of requests from around the world from people who want us to take action. It might be to provide access to the market, or whatever. The list, for example, that APHIS deals with on risk assessments and whether to allow products in is just amazing--it's in the hundreds--because every country wants to get into that market.
The problem, in our case, is that they might have pests or diseases that could affect many of the products we grow, since we do have such a wide range of products. So while it seems that we are doing this just to be protectionist or whatever, there are legitimate reasons why we go through this process.
In my experience, Canada gets incredible priority in terms of the issues it raises, whether it's to look at risk assessments or to look at whatever issue. Having served in South America, I can tell you that the Uruguayans have been trying to get their fruit in and get on our list for risk assessment for years and years.
We realize the importance of this relationship with Canada, and we have to give these issues priority. It's important to us economically and politically in every way. We may not do things that you agree with, or whatever, but at least we try to get people to listen to your concerns.
I think a good example of that is the recent visit by your agriculture minister, Mr. Strahl to Washington. He had I think three items on his agenda that he basically wanted to talk about. He felt that he was not getting enough collaboration from us, and we are actively dealing with all three of those issues and I think making progress.
This is the type of relationship we have and that we want to maintain.
With that, I will turn it over to whatever questions you have.