Of course, not everyone in Canada is convinced of the merits of fuller economic integration within North America. In fact, as you will probably hear later in this conference, many Canadians are concerned about the implications of such a move for our political sovereignty and policy independence. Once again, I am here as an economist.
So I will leave the political questions aside and focus instead on the factors that I see as relevant in the context of pursuing fuller economic integration. But I should point out that, although the interest for Canada in further integration is primarily economic, it is quite clear that the Americans see border security as an important element of that integration.