Mr. Minister, good afternoon and welcome, to you, to the departmental officials and to some former colleagues.
When we talk about customs, most people think about the security matters it handles. We have just come back from a trip to Washington, during which we met with members of Congress. To our great surprise, most of them told us that Canadian customs cause them practically no problems. So security seemed to be a less pressing issue for them. That leads me to understand that the economic and trade dimensions of the preclearance program is the most important and has the most positive impact.
Mr. Minister, could you tell us what the economic advantages of an agreement like this are?
With the increase in preclearance, what improvements can we expect in terms of trade and the economy?