Mr. Fragiskatos, I believe at the height of the intimacy in trade terms between the United States and Canada, approximately 85% of Canada's foreign trade was with the United States, and roughly half that figure was the percentage of [Technical difficulty—Editor] tied up in that, which I would have thought was as great a level of integration with the U.S. economy as the State of California possessed at that time.
I believe that number now, the 85%, is down to 73% or something [Technical difficulty—Editor]. It is gradually happening, and I think it is a good thing. It's not that we want to get away from trade with the United States, but it is generally a good thing to be more broadly based in international transactions, and it is a natural trend anyway.
I would make two points, if I could, related to your previous question to Ms. Greenwood. The one area where I think we should be prepared for a real divergence, but I'm not exactly sure and haven't enough competence to say how determined our government is in this matter, is on all this business about carbon taxes and activities based on presumptions about global warming. We are not going to be operating on a parallel line with the present American administration on that point. I think that is clear from directives that have already been implemented in respect of the Environmental Protection Agency.
I also want to make the point that in tearing up NAFTA and so forth, Donald Trump has never expressed any problem at all with Canada-U.S. free trade. I mean, a slight tweaking I believe was his expression when the Prime Minister and others visited him. His problem is that he's not a protectionist. He is actually in favour of trade. What he does not like is trade that consists of a net sizable exportation of unemployment to the United States. He's well aware that there are 12 million jobs in the U.S. dependent on exports, but he's also aware that there are between 30 million and 40 million jobs elsewhere in the world dependent on exports to the United States. He just wants to reduce that imbalance. He doesn't want to lift the drawbridge and pull down the blinds and take “America first” as a policy in the sense meant by Colonel Lindbergh in 1940. He just wants fair trade.
We're not dealing with a monster here. We're dealing with a reasonable person who just wants to do a good job for his country. Well, so do all national leaders. In that sense he's not unusual.