Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you very much for the chance to appear before you again as you undertake this very important study on Canada-U.S. relations.
I'm here today representing Canada's steel industry. My members produce 13 million tonnes of steel, pipe and tube products annually and support 123,000 jobs directly and indirectly across five Canadian provinces from Alberta to Quebec.
Canada's steel sector plays a strategically vital role in the North American economy. We are advanced manufacturers of a 100% recyclable and low-carbon product. We are a critical supplier to many key North American sectors, including the automotive, energy and construction sectors, and various general manufacturing applications. As you well know, we operate in a highly integrated marketplace with the United States.
We are a sector that knows first-hand how critical it is to maintain open access in the trading relationship between Canada and the United States. Access to that market is paramount for our industry; about half of what we produce in a year heads to the United States.
As context for my remarks, let me say that while the last year has been unprecedented in terms of market conditions, it's very [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Currently, as you well know, we are facing simultaneously the impact of supply chain disruption, omicron absenteeism, ongoing global overcapacity challenges and, last but not least, protectionism moves by the United States.
We're committed to working with the United States to expand trade and to strengthen the resiliency of our supply chains with our largest trading partner, but we cannot support measures that jeopardize the long-term global competitiveness of our industry and our industry's customers. Unfortunately, we are seeing a shift away from the spirit of the USMCA via buy America policies and softwood lumber. We have talked about a number of them here already. This trend is highly alarming and we need to take it seriously.
The CSPA in that vein encourages all levels of government to ensure that they are taking a comprehensive and coordinated approach in their dealings with the United States as we move forward. This is an approach where we both stand up for our interests, of course, but also seek to work together to address issues of common concern and mutual opportunity. For example, on the steel side, we share a deep concern for the growing and significant global overcapacity that we are seeing from a range of nations, particularly China, but also ASEAN, Iran, Turkey, etc. Global overcapacity translates to unfairly traded imports in the North American economy.
In this vein, there remains significant opportunity to demonstrate to our largest trading partner that our trade tools are keeping pace with the ever-evolving practices of unfair traders. [Technical difficulty—Editor] there is a widespread and growing problem with the circumvention of trade remedies. As a result, it is critical that we update our trade laws to ensure adequate enforcement. Tools such as anti-circumvention legislation and enhanced import monitoring are required to both protect our domestic market and show the U.S. that we're keeping pace.
Tangible steps can be taken in this regard. We must urgently implement the trade remedy modernization recommendations that were consulted on in the last budget. We hope that the detailed recommendations that we submitted this fall to the government are incorporated in budget 2022. They provide tangible and real-life examples of how we can seek stronger alignment between Canada and the United States and address key gaps in our trade measures that exist today.
Finally, the United States is introducing climate measures in all areas of its trade policy. Canada would do very well to note and engage early on this, as the outcomes could be very significant to the Canadian industry. Of particular note is the recent deal struck on climate between the U.S. and the EU on steel and aluminum. While many of the details of this agreement are yet to be worked out, it is a clear shift by the U.S. to deter trade with higher-carbon-emitting jurisdictions such as China.
Here, we see a potential opportunity for Canada. Given the successful environmental track record of Canadian steel producers and many other production capabilities in Canada, as well as some of the specific examples of our green track record, our goal to be net zero, etc., we believe we should not shy away from engaging with the U.S. and seeking alignment with them on climate trade matters. This may indeed become an imperative in the months and years ahead. I thank—