Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister, thank you for being with us this afternoon.
Forgive me for not joining the chorus and singing along with your notion on your Liberal side of Kumbaya. Instead, during your time in office, your record is one of failure. Sadly, under your watch, Mexico has now become the United States' biggest trading partner. No longer is it Canada.
Given your record, Canadians can be excused for harbouring some concerns regarding your government's negotiating skills. You talked about standing up for Canada in CUSMA. Essentially, you were presented the deal. The United States and Mexico had come to an agreement. It was either take it or leave it. That's what your stand had taken.
Despite CUSMA being negotiated, there are still issues such as rules of origin, dairy, steel and aluminum, digital services tax, forced labour, softwood—softwood for nine years now.
We've had past witnesses testify that the U.S. is most likely to use this review to push its views on current trade disputes to obtain more favourable outcomes. How does Canada respond when the U.S. trade representative, Katherine Tai, has already indicated, at a Brookings Institution event in March, that “the question is always going to be, do you have enough, have you changed the leverage composition, to get to the political solution that you need.”
Minister, how do you respond?