Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for being here this morning. I think it's a great primer on the importance of trade and its impact on our economy.
I'd like to ask you some questions about that, but before I get to that, we've heard a couple of comments this morning. Just a few minutes ago Mr. Stephenson made the comment that Canada should stop falling behind other countries. It made me think about how earlier in the presentation Mr. Reeder said that Panama has a free trade agreement with the United States. Somebody else--maybe Mrs. Hillman--mentioned that Jordan already has free trade agreements with the EU and the United States.
So I got to thinking about our competitive disadvantage. If Canada doesn't sign these free trade agreements shortly, the EU and the United States have these agreements, so their companies can go into these countries on a preferred basis and negotiate great deals. But Canadians are being left behind. We can't compete because the tariffs are still in place for us. Is that not the case?
How would you explain to the ordinary Canadian that we have horses in this race, and right now the United States and the EU have less baggage to carry, less weight on their backs, and they're running ahead of us?