Thank you very much. I appreciate being asked to be part of this conversation.
My name is Kevin Jacobi. I'm executive director for CanadaBW Logistics, located in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
To put it in context, my company is an import-export development company. We help local businesses support expansion of their exporting needs, as well as international companies find a home here in Niagara, for them to be part of our community and develop their businesses within the Canadian infrastructure.
I'm here to speak in support of the USMCA and the ratifications that are being done, in the hopes that it's going to give stability to our companies here.
We have a number of companies whose opportunities have been greatly impacted by changes in tariffs subjugating such things as steel and aluminum. Our client base here develop contracts between their suppliers and the people they're selling to that can last more over two to three years. When tariffs come in the middle of a contract, we don't have the opportunity to adapt or to evolve what we're trying to do as businesses. It impacts our margins or it dissolves our company.
Working with our chambers of commerce here, as well as being the executive director for both the Niagara Industrial Association and the World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara chapter, we see there being dramatic impacts from this uncertainty without this deal being ratified.
What we're hoping to see through ratification is stability in the market. We understand that there are going to be pluses and minuses, depending on the sector of business that our companies are in. However, we'll have the rules in place to allow us to make decisions that we can impact and can forecast beyond just the short term. We're firmly in the process of having.... I think we have a very small window for us to ratify, based on the political climate in the United States. If we don't take action soon, we may lose that window of opportunity.
Niagara—and Niagara is one of the largest trade networks across Canada, being a border community—has the busiest border crossing for people coming back and forth from Canada and the U.S., but it is also the second most important border crossing when it comes to total value of freight. We are one of the few areas in Ontario with a trade surplus.
The ratification of the NAFTA 2.0 or USMCA will solidify our ability to impact Canada's economy, as well as attract businesses and investment into our Canadian business cycle. One thing we do with my company—what we try to accomplish here—is to develop a landing point for international companies to develop manufacturing and marketing opportunities within our region to better impact their ability to do business with both Canada and the U.S.
We understand that Canada is a very small market compared to the U.S.. However, we are seen across the world as a stable market, a place of doing business in an environment that respects fair trade and other cultures. We give a landing point that allows them to have fair access to both Canada and the U.S. and, of course, Mexico, to a limited extent. We don't really have as much going here for Niagara in that respect.
We hope that the committee will take the advice of the people who are presenting to move forward with ratification and give Canadian businesses a stable platform for us to grow our communities.
Thank you.