Despite this incredible success, we're facing unprecedented uncertainty. Predictability has been eroded by governments putting in place tariffs and other measures that blatantly contradict trade rules. It has happened here in North America, and we're seeing it happen around the world.
Last spring, CAFTA released a prescription for what's required in this new environment. “Realizing Canada's Export Potential in an Unpredictable and Fiercely Competitive World” outlines what we see as being required to help us continue setting record agri-food exports.
Our first recommendation in this paper was to preserve and enhance access to key markets, and this is exactly what bringing into force and ratifying the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement will do.
We understand the nationalist noise swirling around. We saw it first-hand when members of CAFTA were present at every round of CUSMA negotiations, whether that was in Washington, here in Ottawa, in Montreal or in Mexico City. It's also why we applauded when the talks for this agreement were concluded last fall, and why CAFTA welcomed the end of aluminum and steel tariffs.
We appreciate the value of tariff-free markets, because the agri-food sector has prospered immensely in North America because of our tariff-free access. Over the last 25 years, we've seen Canadian agri-food exports to the NAFTA countries quadruple, from $9 billion in 1993 to $34 billion in 2019. The U.S. and Mexico are our first- and fourth-largest markets, and they make up about 55% of all of our agri-food exports from Canada.
We support CUSMA because it builds on the foundation established through NAFTA, preserves the duty-free access we obtained in that agreement and builds on that in a few key areas.
Our members, the hundreds of thousands of farmers, ranchers, food processors and agricultural exporters who rely on trade, are really pleased that the government and Parliament are taking steps to ratify CUSMA.