Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and good morning, everyone.
I'm Rob Williams. I'm CEO of Redline Communications. We manufacture wireless technology for customers wishing to build private networks and our markets are really focused on natural resources, service providers, and government agencies. Our technology is designed and developed in Markham, Canada, where we employ a team of about 120 engineers and technicians. We manufacture in Mexico and distribute globally using our 3PL partner based in Mississauga.
Our technology is quite advanced. It's a software-defined broadband radio that can operate in a wide array of frequencies. This enables us to sell our products quite easily into countries where the regulatory authorities have specific requirements for those different regions. We incorporate advanced security, and as such, we're subject to strict export controls, something that I think we need to be very mindful of as we move forward.
The nature of our customer engagements require us to have a local presence in the geography with our prospective customers, and we often send experts from our head office to assist customers with those engagements. Thus, it's critically important for us to have free and easy movement of people as we conduct our projects.
Once a project has been initiated, we ship into the country with the hope that prolonged delays are minimized, which is often not the case. Often our ability to adhere to customer timelines is challenged by unpredictable customs clearance regulations, and we often therefore avoid undertaking projects in some of the countries where those challenges exist. Once a project has been implemented, it's occasionally necessary to return defective components, and this simple process is often mired in high double duties, making the simple repair of products a challenge for our customers.
Amongst the Mercosur partner countries, Redline conducts a significant amount of business in Argentina. However, we're limited to the oil and gas market due to the excessive tariffs imposed on incoming goods. These tariffs make our technologies too expensive for other markets in that country.
Although we see a significant opportunity in Brazil, particularly in mining and transportation, it's difficult to enter that market due to the high tariffs imposed on software and technology. For a smaller company such as Redline, the costs to support local content requirements for electronic equipment create an economic barrier for working in that country.
In addition to the import-export challenges I've noted, we struggle with timely payment from customers at the conclusion of sales transactions, due to country-specific taxation rules that tend to challenge a very small company such as ours.
Some of our recommendations as you move forward with this trade agreement, which we very strongly support, include elimination or reduction of the tariffs on the import of electronic and telecommunications equipment; elimination of local content requirements for that equipment; recognition of Canada's rigorous safety standards, eliminating repetitive homologation requirements in each of those countries; elimination of the SIMI process, or certainly simplifying it, for goods that are being returned for repair; replacement of the visa requirements with reciprocal electronic travel authorizations such as we've implemented here in Canada; and simplification of the type approval process for telecommunications equipment and elimination of the need for local applicants.
Again, Redline strongly supports the trade agreement, and I thank you for listening to me this morning.