Thanks to the committee members for inviting the [Technical difficulty—Editor].
As members of the committee well know by now, aluminum is part of the new narrative in world geopolitics. A critical material as listed in Canada, Europe and the U.S., it has been the object of a series of trade confrontations over the last five years, with resulting anti-dumping and countervailing duties, tariffs and TRQs.
While Europe and the U.S. have been at the forefront of these measures, China's state-subsidized growth and dominance of world markets are mostly to blame for this situation, as documented by the OECD. This just shows how our metal is strategic now and for the future.
As the world is moving out of the pandemic and supply chains' resilience and decarbonization are on the agenda, the U.S., like other world powers, is attempting to seize the momentum and redraw its industrial web to the benefit of its workers, communities and markets. As we enter the carbon trade era where CO2 is on everyone's balance sheet reaching for the bottom line, responsibly produced low-CO2 minerals and metals stand to create value for Canada while answering the world's growing demand for responsible sustainability.
With its resource-based economy, Canada stands to gain through trade more than ever. Our industry ships most of its responsibly produced low-CO2 metal to the U.S., representing 70% of their imports in recent years, with multi-billion dollars in yearly exports for Canada, a significant contributor to our trade balance.
The U.S. market is our market, and by far. Canada is their key supplier, and by far. Maintaining the global competitiveness of our industry and its free access to market, especially in the U.S., is therefore fundamental. Our 8,800 workers and nine plants smelt and ship the most responsibly produced low-CO2 metal going into the U.S.
The U.S. is now pivoting toward bilateral managed trade agreements, replacing the past administration's tariff-based approach, as witnessed with the EU and Japan and forthcoming with Great Britain. While dealing with non-market economies and carbon are part of this new narrative, they are still establishing their bearings on the use of climate-based trade instruments. National security, protectionism and managed trade are all reactions to a perceived threat. Canada has never been, is not and never will be such a threat to the U.S.
As mentioned at the beginning, the economic world order has been gradually disrupted by China's dominance in key base industrial sectors. Be it steel, magnesium or aluminum, as well as rare earths, China dominates markets. We are, as an industry, as an economy and as a country, impacted by China's subsidies and non-market behaviour, and the carbon leakage associated with it.
Considering these two priorities for the new administration, we think that Canada must find alignment with the U.S. on dealing with non-market economies and carbon transfer. The global arrangement on sustainable steel and aluminum with Europe is a case in point. It clearly states, “The global arrangement will be open to any interested country that shares our commitment to achieving the goals of restoring market-orientation and reducing trade in carbon intensive steel and aluminium products.”
While Canada has its own trade agreement with the U.S. and the EU, restoring rules-based markets and carbon trade reduction should be on our priorities list, and we should make it clear to all interested parties. Canada must not only act on these issues, but it must also be clearly seen to be doing so. Working with the U.S. and our allies would contribute to more multilateralism, to the benefit of all parties. Canada should also push for a “buy clean” approach in government procurement with the U.S., calling for responsibly produced low-CO2 solutions.
In closing, while we were invited to comment on specific files such as EV and others, we firmly believe that our relationship with our most important trading partner deserves a broader approach at the crossroads of climate change and competitiveness. We need to re-engage on common grounds, aligning on shared values. We must also nurture this relationship at all levels all year round. We saw through the last round of CUSMA negotiations how much we had taken each other for granted during all those years. We saw it—