Madam Chair, on a personal note to begin with, as a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and diplomat, I apologize for breaking the dress code of this meeting. I have not worn a tie in the last 40 days, and I don't think many Ukrainians have done that, because of the Russian invasion and because of the war.
I'm a reservist officer right now, currently coordinating the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, and I want to reassure you that I'm deeply honoured by this invitation and feel that it is a very important meeting.
I am in a very unusual position, because on this, the 40th day of the Russian invasion, and just days after we learned about the Bucha massacre and other Russian atrocities, my heart screams to talk about the war, the genocide inflicted on Ukraine by Russia, the courage of Ukrainians and the genuine support of Canada.
It is also clear to me that if we want to overcome this, and we will, we must think about the future. We must think about how we can modernize the world in the future. We believe that the freedom and justice we are fighting for will be accompanied by prosperity and growth, and we want to be there with Canada. My message, Madam Chair, to you and to the committee is very simple. It is long overdue to modernize the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
We have built a very impressive base for the rapid growth of trade between our countries. The Russian invasion interrupted this, but I am absolutely sure that we will continue growth, and that, wherever possible, we should use every opportunity right now to remove trade barriers. We need that to benefit our businesses. New opportunities under this agreement were found in places where no one would expect them.
As of 2020, Ukraine bypassed Japan to become the third-biggest buyer of Canadian fish and seafood. At the same time, 25% of the apple juice supplies in Canada were coming from Ukraine. We have other reasons to expect our trade to be boosted even further once we modernize the agreement and extend it into services and investments.
I can give you just one field of co-operation in which we expect major growth, and that is the ICT sector. Ukraine is well known for its human talent in IT, and even today, as we speak, major Canadian companies rely on Ukrainian IT specialists. We need to modernize CUFTA to make sure we meet all the global challenges. We need to go ahead with this to respond to the food security challenge caused by the Russian invasion.
Let's think about the future. We will win the war. We will start a major recovery program. Whether we talk about enormous infrastructure procurement in Ukraine going ahead, whether we talk about new investment opportunities that the Ukrainian government is going to introduce, or whether we talk about the enormous hunger for all sorts of supplies, we want to see Canadian companies benefit from those opportunities. It will be good for Ukraine and it will be good for Canada.
Let's look at the big picture. We are building a space that will be comfortable for our companies and for our extraordinary human talent. We should see this agreement as working alongside the excellent technical assistance programs, with amazing defence co-operation, great connection among academics, and people-to-people ties. Once we modernize the agreement, it should be accompanied by a visa-free regime, a mobility agreement and a customs agreement. We are very close to building an exemplary foundation for mutual economic growth and co-operation.
I'll stop there, Madam Chair.