Sure, I'd be happy to. I'd just like to commend Minister Freeland, Ambassador MacNaughton and Steve Verheul, our chief negotiator, for their incredible work. As a public servant, I liken this almost to a war, and Steve and his team have been away for over a year working on this. We're thrilled to have come to a conclusion that we can share with Canadians.
As you know, the deal has been announced, and more technical work is currently being done so that we can present the full agreement. I think I can mention a few stylized facts. The first is that business likes certainty. It now provides certainty to business that access to the U.S. and Mexican markets is not in question.
The second piece, which I think is equally important, is that the U.S. remains our primary trading partner. The U.S. is, if you will, the training ground and the training wheels for many companies who then go global. It would be inaccurate for us to talk about the world and how firms, particularly Canadian SMEs, grow to profitability and grow as quickly as possible without talking about key U.S. markets. So we're thrilled to have that access under way.
The last point I would make is that our negotiators are not standing still. I take note of this committee's important work on Asia. The conclusion of the CPTPP is essential, and we will be amongst the first countries to ratify and bring that agreement into effect.
I would commend the work you are undertaking to examine ASEAN and our Latin-American counterparts. This work will allow us to cover even further the supply chains of the world, the Fortune 500 companies, and the innovative new technologies in IT and clean tech that, as I think you've heard, my colleagues from EDC, BDC, and others are bringing home to Canada and that Canadians are contributing to the world. This will be relentless.
As my last point, the trade commissioner service provides up to $50,000 for a company of any size, but particularly for SMEs, to go to a market they haven't yet explored.
So one of my top takeaways for this committee is to please refer SMEs of all descriptions in all sectors to us. This is absolutely a kind of hyper-growth passport so that we can assist companies to get to growth faster.