Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to each of you for appearing before us today and for your interventions.
First of all, Mr. Ross, Cherubini is a great company and a great employer and a good corporate citizen in Nova Scotia. We're delighted to have you here today.
I have a couple of questions. First, this agreement was based on the WTO agreement on government procurement, and there are significant carve-outs. Mr. Shrybman was referring to some of them. In the notes to annex 2 of that agreement, it specifically says that construction-grade steel, for instance, is excluded from the Buy American deal. It also says that it “does not apply to restrictions attached to federal funds for mass transit and highway projects”, which would include, for instance, bridges.
If the Buy American exemptions in the recent agreement do not apply to mass transit, to highway projects, to bridges, to construction-grade steel, or to contracts of less than $8.8 million, would that limit your access to U.S. business, Mr. Ross?