Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to everybody.
You're right, Mr. Stephenson. We are making headway. We cannot but continue to emphasize that they are our largest trading partners, very important to our country. I'm glad you tied in the other trade agreements that are under way—Canada-Europe, for example—as we're seeing them expand in their own way. I think we have to be very careful there as well.
You've touched on so many things. In the short time I have, I'm just going to touch on two or three.
Thank you for this in-depth briefing, to start off with.
You talked about borders, security, modernizing the borders. I think you'll agree with me that there are two separate things: modernizing the border in terms of flow and, technically speaking, in terms of security. Maybe, Mr. Stephenson, you could elaborate on those two altogether separate things and what we can do—I know the Prime Minister was there discussing security aspects, I believe, but in terms of modernizing how the border facilitates itself back and forth.
Then you talked about the problem that we are not well known in the U.S. Maybe you can suggest how we can overcome that. Because often—and I say often—they get into an election, or elected candidates make statements that are false, if I may say, because they're in a campaign or they wish to send a message to their local constituents that is actually inaccurate. It causes problems, I believe.
What would you suggest we do? Do we have our ambassador undertake a more aggressive state? Do we have committees from Canada visit state by state and exchange in a more in-depth way? Maybe you could suggest some more. This way, we could make the rest of the United States, aside from Washington, know better who we are and what we do.
With respect to SMEs, I'm glad you touched upon that, because we've heard from SMEs in the past in terms of their ability or inability to compete with the Buy American program. We as a country, as you know, are very receptive to working above board.
You talked about the country-of-origin labelling. That also concerns me, because I go back to the BST problem we had some years ago. We chose as a country to deal with it, and our position was based on science and not emotion. On the other hand, we were having that file driven emotionally from others, if I may use that word. How do we overcome that? How do we get that point across to the decision-makers down there that irrespective of the pressure they might receive from their local constituencies, or districts, as they call them...? How do we work with them?
How do we work on the softwood lumber issue? What more can we do as a government, as a committee, as a nation, to try to overcome some of these problems?
The last question I'll tie in is this. Do you think the trade barriers we have within our country, from province to province, impede or have any kind of negative impact when it comes to dealing with the United States?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.