Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to both witnesses for being with us.
Mr. Stanford, you raised the issue, as have others, about the increased trade deficit in the auto sector in the U.S. as a result of the KORUS deal signed in 2012. I put that concern to Ian Burney who negotiated this agreement on behalf of Canada, when he testified on Tuesday this week. He responded that the trade deficit was wholly unrelated to KORUS because U.S. auto tariffs have not actually implemented any reductions yet. The passenger car tariff doesn't actually come down until 2016 and the light truck tariff doesn't begin to fall until seven years after the implementation of KORUS. So, there's been no change in the U.S. tariffs as a result of KORUS yet. I think there has been a reduction on the Korean side.
He also pointed out that the U.S. economy has been in recovery for the past few years, whereas Korea has been suffering a bit of an economic cold over the past two years. In other words, Mr. Burney argued that growing U.S. consumer demand and slowing Korean consumer demand could also be a factor responsible for the fact that American consumers may be purchasing more vehicles, whereas Korean consumers are not. What would you make of that argument?