Thank you for your question. It's good to see you again, even if remotely.
Asia is vital for Canada's prosperity. We've known that for a long time, but we saw this really come to roost after the great recession of 2008. Many of you will be familiar with what happened right after our exports to the world fell dramatically. They fell to all of our traditional major markets, particularly the United States and the EU. They fell to Africa. They fell to Latin America and Central America, but they did not fall to China. In fact, in the case of China, I believe exports went up by something like 27% in 2009, when the rest of the world was in its doldrums.
That same upward trend continued through 2010-2011, to the point where Asia as a whole, and China in particular, has become a much more important source of demand for Canadian exports than I could have imagined five years ago. In British Columbia alone for the year 2011, Asia has exceeded the importance of the United States as a trading partner. That's extraordinary. I could not have dreamed this would be possible.
Now, this may not be permanent, because the U.S. is recovering—and we should all hope that the U.S. recovers quickly. But I think something fundamental has changed. You might say a tipping point has been reached, and Canadian companies across the country now understand that Asia is not simply a secondary, or peripheral, or some kind of buffer market. It's central to the corporate and the economic strategies, at the firm level, at the industry level, and as you say, at the country level.
In order for us to take advantage of these opportunities, we have to market very aggressively, of course, but the framework for our companies to market successfully comes from strong diplomatic, political, and trade relations. One way of developing these relations is by having trade agreements, economic agreements, investment agreements, investment protection agreements. There's a whole range of them. They can be summed up in the term “free trade agreements”, but you don't necessarily have to go the whole hog, if you will.
One of the most important agreements, which we are now seeking to enter and Minister Fast is working very hard to get us into, is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is a group of nine economies from around the Asia-Pacific region that are working toward a free trade agreement that covers the entire Asia-Pacific basin. The United States is part of that group, and Mexico and Japan want to join, along with Canada. It's vital that we put our best effort in getting in, because if we don't, we could be left out of what might amount to the premier Asia-Pacific trade agreement.
As it is, we have zero free trade agreements with Asian countries, so we have a lot of catching up to do.