I think we have a number of challenges.
When you talk about the reduction of the parts content going from 62%, and potentially to 45%, we have some bigger detrimental effects, because obviously you're going to have more vehicles coming from countries like China, with a content of about 55% now. In saying that, within it there's a 10% flexibility, so it's potentially as low as 45%.
What that does is give you an opportunity for a bigger exodus of jobs out of our industry. You can bring it in for a cheaper labour rate in another country that doesn't have environmental controls, doesn't have health and safety regulations, and has a government that supports them and will change or fluctuate their currency in order to support that initiative. When we look at particular regions, our auto trade deficit with Japan, for example, grew by 16% last year to $5.2 billion, with a massively lopsided ratio of $187 coming in for every $1 that we export to that country.
When you start to look at numbers like that, it's devastating to think what that could mean for our country. We talk about one-fifth change, because that's the number that we've been using, and potentially we're in line to lose 20,000 jobs. That's something we shouldn't take lightly, and we shouldn't negotiate ourselves out of jobs for the future. Free trade agreements should look to make our economy stronger, better, and more prosperous for Canadians, not worse.