We shall begin. This is the eighth meeting of this session of the Standing Committee on International Trade.
Today we're going to begin a discussion of Canada-U.S. trade relations in anticipation of a possible visit to Washington in a month or a few weeks. In any event, I'd like to begin today with a briefing from the department.
Representing the department today is Don Stephenson, the assistant deputy minister, trade policy and negotiations. He has with him Deborah Lyons, who is the director general, North America commercial affairs; Martin Moen, who is the director of North America trade policy; and Callie Stewart, deputy director of technical barriers and regulations.
We have about an hour for this briefing, so I'm going to ask Mr. Stephenson to begin with a brief opening statement, and then we'll go to questions for about an hour. Mr. Stephenson has to leave to join the premiers, or the provincial trade representatives, I think, at 10, but his colleagues will remain if you want to carry on questions a little longer. We'll at least try to get through a first round of questions.
So to begin, I'm going to ask Mr. Stephenson to give opening remarks on Canada-U.S. trade relations.