Indeed, I had a very fascinating tour of their facility there, looking at innovation and at how they contribute to all the innovation. I met with Magna's senior management.
By the way, Chair, let me just thank the committee for their work. When you meet people internationally and you come back with that feedback, it's very informative. We're trying to get as many data points as we can to inform our course of action.
The main discussion was really around Mercosur. They see particularly Brazil and Argentina as very attractive markets for the auto parts manufacturers. They see a lot of export opportunities. Obviously, they were sharing with me some of the non-tariff trade barriers they're facing, and were asking us to try to address them. These are very important markets. We know that. Our bilateral trade with Brazil is around $6 billion. Those are quite significant markets.
As we look at the uncertainty in some established markets, the opportunity or the possibility to expand in new markets is becoming quite relevant. To go back to the question from our colleague, I think you see people looking more and more to other markets as they see how the global trade environment will evolve with, for example, the section 232 investigation just recently launched on the automobile sector.
I think what you find from people in this sector is “eyes wide open”. They're looking at all opportunities that may present. We did talk about a number of issues around customs procedures, taxation, trying to facilitate that, and the willingness for them to invest more if they could get the certainty and predictability in those markets. Overall, I think the sentiment was encouraging us to push further in these negotiations and to try, I think like everything in trade, to be first. We need to open markets.
To go back to our colleague's question, whatever uncertainty may exist, when you open up new markets and you provide certainty, that's what business is looking for.