Welcome to the fourth meeting this session of our Standing Committee on International Trade.
We're continuing our discussion on Canada-U.S. trade relations, today with specific reference to procurement. To help us along, we have invited a witness from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, our old friend the senior vice-president of policy, Shirley-Ann George. Shirley-Ann, thank you for coming again.
Also, as an individual, we have a former trade negotiator with the Canadian government and I believe the Quebec government, Carl Grenier. As well, we have Omar Hammoud, who's the president of APG-Neuros Inc. in Quebec.
I'm going to ask our witnesses if they would begin today, by way of background and to give us a briefing on this important issue, with an opening statement of ten minutes or less. I'll ask each one of you to do that, starting with Monsieur Grenier.