I was saying that, among the risks I just brought up, the most immediate for companies, especially those in Canada, are growing costs, especially the cost of marine transportation. Since early 2020, the average cost of international transportation by 40-foot container has increased more than fivefold. The cost of transportation from Asia to Europe has increased especially quickly, but the cost associated with routes between Asia and North America and between Europe and North America has also more than doubled.
In that context, both European Union countries and the United States have already implemented a wide range of initiatives to shorten supply chains. During 2020, for example, the European Commission published an industrial strategy for Europe, and one of its main objectives was to strengthen the European Union's strategic autonomy. Among other things, that policy proposes networking initiatives—in other words, the forming of industrial alliances in order to replace imports with local procurement and European production in a number of key sectors.
In 2021, the Biden administration, in the United States, published a report that identified critical sectors for which the American supply and production chains had to be strengthened. We are talking about the sectors involving semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, rare earths and strategic minerals such as lithium and graphite, as well as pharmaceutical products and their active ingredients. In addition, the Biden government established a consortium in charge of selecting up to 100 pharmaceuticals of strategic interest for which production will have to be partially relocated to the United States. Investments of several billion dollars were also announced to stimulate production and strengthen local supply chains in the agri-food sector.
Compared with western economies that are currently implementing very vigorous relocation policies, Canada has been rather modest. Since the 1980s, even despite the awareness the health crisis has brought, the Canadian federal government has persisted in fostering a more liberal and light-touch approach in economic development. It has not adopted any industrial policies per se. This is still true two years after Canada's Industry Strategy Council submitted its report.
We have some suggestions that are likely to promote the substitution of Canadian manufacturing imports, including support for research and development and for the commercialization of Canadian innovations, as well as support for automating manufacturing companies. We also suggest the implementation of carbon tariffs at the border, increased support for exporters, networking platforms for producers and local suppliers, as well as preferential public procurement policies.
I will be happy to talk more about this with anyone who is interested.
Thank you.