Thank you for your kind words. I always try to be accessible despite all the travel, as some colleagues know.
I call it the diversification imperative. When I took the portfolio, the first thing was obviously realizing that the U.S. will always be our largest trading partner. More than 70% of our exports go to the U.S. because of the proximity of the markets and, obviously, the size of the U.S. economy.
At the same time, I think that Canadians now understand more than ever that Canada represents 0.5% of the world population and about 2.5% of global trade, so opening markets is just a smart thing to do. That's what we've done in Europe with CETA. As you know, on September 21, this agreement came into force, opening up a market of 500 million consumers and making $3.3 trillion in public procurement available to small and medium-sized businesses in Canada.
At the same time, we looked at the Asia-Pacific region, and the CPTPP for me was a way for Canada to write the rules of trade in the Asia-Pacific for the next couple of decades. That's pretty astonishing if you consider that, in the CPTPP, Canada is the second largest economy after Japan. We have been a key actor to make sure our progressive elements would be incorporated. If you look at the 22 suspensions, you will see Canada plays a leading role to make sure we rebalance the agreement in favour of, for example, the intellectual property rules we have in Canada, and with respect to culture, the environment, and labour. I think this is a great achievement for Canada.
At the same time, obviously, we're looking at the Pacific alliance, which includes the countries of Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. We already have FTAs with them, but we're trying to improve them, to modernize them for the 21st century.
With respect to Mercosur, if you took Mercosur as a bloc, that would be the fifth largest economy in the world, about 260 million people.
I think what we're doing is looking north-south and east-west to make sure Canada has preferential market access. I think this is a key differentiator. I can tell you that when investors talk to me, they do look at these agreements to see how they can access these markets. At the same time, it's our way to move the needle with respect to progressive trade. We did that with Israel, as you may have seen recently, modernizing the FTA and having the first ever gender chapter in the world that is subject to dispute resolution.
At the same time as we're expanding, we're moving the needle and making sure trade is in line with the values of Canadians and ready for the 21st century.