Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Ferguson, it's great to see you again.
Having been on public accounts for a number of years and having a chance to take a look at all this information over a long period, I'm happy to see that you're working in areas that are so important to our nation's finances. Of course, these areas are especially important when we're talking about trade, as we are, and when we talk about how goods are moving across the border.
We're looking at this strictly from the Canadian border customs perspective and goods that are coming into Canada, but we also have to start looking on the trade side as to how things are moving in the other direction.
That's part of what was being discussed when we talked about the $20 versus the $800. You indicated that $200 would perhaps be a break-even amount. Nobody's pinning anyone down as far as what the ultimate dollar figure should be, but I think it's important that it at least become part of our discussion.
Just going back to deal with what we were talking about, it was back in 2002 when it began to be noticed that 20% of these goods that are being imported were being misclassified. You also indicated in paragraph 2.21 that through misclassification, sometimes importers pay too little tax and sometimes they pay too much. It's a fact that you just don't have confidence that it's being tracked properly. That's really one of the key things.
I'm wondering if in the discussions there was consideration of how our system compares to the inspection of goods when they cross into the U.S. Did you get into any discussions with CBSA on the reciprocal treatment that the U.S. was giving to our goods?