Welcome, members, to the seventh meeting of the Special Committee on the Economic Relationship between Canada and the United States. Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on February 16, the special committee is meeting to discuss the economic relationship between Canada and the United States.
Today we're moving forward in our work and will be starting our examination of buy American procurement policies. To open this topic for us, we are fortunate to have the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade here today.
In addition to the minister, we have from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Steve Verheul, assistant deputy minister, trade policy and negotiations; Arun Alexander, director general, North America trade policy bureau; Doug Forsyth, director general, market access; and Eric Walsh, director general, North America strategy bureau. I thank the witnesses for agreeing to spend this time with us to enlighten us on this very important topic.
Minister, you have five minutes for your opening statement for us. I want to thank you again for sharing your time with us and the floor is yours.