Thank you.
Let me begin by thanking the committee for the privilege of speaking with you this afternoon. I would add that to do so in the company of Mr. Clark is a privilege indeed.
South Carolina has long maintained significant economic and cultural ties with Canada. In 2007, we received more than 850,000 Canadian visitors. Most of them, approximately 80%, spent their vacations on our beaches. Others came on business visits.
According to Canada's embassy in Washington, trade between South Carolina and Canada supports approximately 85,000 jobs in our state. Although it is hard for us to reconcile that level of employment, I can assure you that we are grateful for it and that relations between Canada and our state are of prime importance.
I should emphasize that I represent the State of South Carolina, not a country. We're a trade and investment office, so what I can perhaps offer to benefit your deliberations is our insight into how we develop these trade relationships and economic development opportunities or investment.
We are a very small state of roughly four million people. Our land mass is slightly larger than New Brunswick. It might be equal if the tide's out in the Bay of Fundy, but other than that we're about the same size. Our economy is historically based on agriculture and textiles. For those of you who know about this, we have essentially redeveloped ourselves in the past two decades. We're now very much focused, with a very successful effort, on economic development and growing our manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and tourism sectors. But the economic downturn is certainly having a major impact on us. We are a manufacturing state, but we're also a very fiscally conservative state. For that reason we feel we'll certainly be on the early end of the turnaround.
I appreciate that time is limited, so rather than rhyming off a bunch of trade statistics I'm sure you're all aware of, let me conclude by saying that whether as a tourist destination or a business-friendly place for Canadian industry to access and grow their U.S. markets, we have a long and valued history of welcoming Canadians, and we certainly appreciate the importance of building on this very important relationship.
Thank you.
Once again, thank you for inviting me today.