Thank you, Madam Chair.
This Inflation Reduction Act of the U.S., combined with the CHIPS and Science Act, I think is the bold new industrial policy of the United States. We talk about friend-shoring. This is actually implementing the strategy of the United States for friend-shoring or on-shoring. This is huge.
As previous witnesses have said, as a small country, we cannot react line by line. We cannot match dollar for dollar, but we have to react smartly. Not everything goes to the U.S. just because of these two acts. The CHIPS and Science Act has put $200 billion into 20 new technology centres for semi conductors, energy transition, biotechnology and so on. However, we do have certain strategic advantages.
Recently, there were press reports that the Pentagon, the U.S. military, wanted to invest in Canadian critical mining projects, which is not news to some of us because, since 1956, in different production sharing agreements, Canadian companies have been considered as U.S. domestic companies for any defence purchases. However, my question today is for Ms. Claire Citeau.
Welcome back. It's nice seeing you again.
First, I have to commend the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance members because yours is the only group that I can say takes very practical advantage of the free trade agreements that Canada has been signing for so long. Whether it's with the European Union or with Asia-Pacific countries and the ongoing discussions that we have. Your members have been very active. They take all the opportunities that the federal government and the provincial governments open up for the Canadian businesses.
The manufacturing investment you mentioned is not a surprise to us. You said that 31 OECD countries have invested $1.7 trillion, whereas Canada's portion is just 1.2% at $22 billion.
We had the aluminum industry association here and the steel industry. These are the major industries where we should seek investment to grow manufacturing capacity. During the last 15 to 20 years, however, both of these sectors, the aluminum sector and the steel sector, have not added any new production capacity. These are all foreign-owned companies that consider Canada to be just one of their branch offices for catering to Canadian market and mostly to export to the U.S. market, but with no exports to Europe or the Asia-Pacific countries that we are working on. Your sector, your members, have been doing a wonderful job on that.
Do we need to have a very clear-cut industrial policy focusing on manufacturing?