Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, members of the committee. It was great to see you in Seattle.
PNWER is a unique organization that was formed in statute by Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and then B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. It's 28 years old. We have 22 different working groups in all of the key industry sectors in the region. As I like to say, our economic watersheds flow north and south out there.
We have focused on NAFTA, and looked at the benefits of NAFTA for 20 years. This is a very interesting time. I have to applaud you for a team Canada approach. That's the right approach by working on consistent messaging.
In November we set up a NAFTA modernization task force. We've been working with the international trade offices of all the states and provinces, as well as private sector representatives in looking at what this well-developed region on the northern border in the U.S. could say to both Ottawa and D.C. in terms of NAFTA.
In this process of meeting regularly since January, we've developed a pretty in-depth survey that we've sent out to 10,000 of our members, and are encouraging other organizations to use as well to bring back some data. This is the first time in the U.S.—and I'm an American—we've used the TPA 2015 Act, which really states once this 90-day period begins, Congress, the Speaker, and the President of the Senate will select special congressional advisory committees in the Senate and the House.
We're focusing on who would we want on those congressional advisory committees. They are formed out of the ways and means in the House and the finance committee in the Senate. We're meeting with our congressional champions, and letting them know that we are preparing data and analysis. We really want to have an opportunity to present that to these committees once they're formed.
It's very important for Canada. You've been great at developing data on how foreign direct investment from Canada is impacting specific states, but we need to hone that down to specific congressional districts, because our system is not like yours. We have a fiefdom of 535 kings out there, and it's all about their district.
I'm very encouraged, meeting with John Manley's group, the Business Council of Canada, because they're taking a specific targeted approach to 80 congressional districts, and trying to really look at how many jobs in these districts are related to Canadian investment or partnerships.
We have to get Americans talking to their congressmen; not in Washington, D.C., that never works. You've been to Washington, you get 10 minutes if you're lucky. We need town hall meetings and letters to the editor from simple people saying, “Hey, my job is really on the line here. Don't screw up. The relationship with Canada is really important.”
The congressional research service is very well-respected in Congress. It just came out with its report on NAFTA. I sent it to your committee, but maybe not in time. This went to every congressman, and I was so dismayed. It is six weeks old, but the report says:
The net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP
This is what stuff is going out there. We have to overcome that with real people telling real stories about why this is important. Anyway, it's worth reviewing this report because they have a lot of credibility. I mean, it's not the full story.
I think the targeted data is really important. Skirmishes around the edges of NAFTA, the dairy.... that's less than a half of a percent of our trade. I worry that this is a process that could take 24 to 36 months depending on all of this. These are not easy things.
I want to get the big picture out as to why this is important to all three countries and try not to get lost in the peripherals. We'll always have irritants, but we always work through them, and we have mechanisms to do that.
I think we need to work on consistent messaging and really have people work together with strategic partnerships. It's a great opportunity for us to engage our strategic partnerships across North America.
I will say that we need to emphasize our collaborative manufacturing platforms, as has been mentioned by all the folks here at the table. We can and should modernize, but do no harm, and really get the message out from an American perspective. We don't know where the administration is going exactly. Anyway, my organizations are making a lot of inroads into the administration in every way we can think of to be a vehicle to really let them know how important this relationship is and not to screw it up.