Mr. Chair, I will go on about a couple of topics here. I mainly have questions, but I will say a few things at the start. I would like to acknowledge the hard work that our ambassador in the U.S. has been doing this last little while. I have been working in the U.S. with my colleague, the parliamentary secretary. We have to acknowledge the hard work that Mr. MacNaughton and his staff have been doing down there. I want to make sure to highlight that.
I want to make the government aware of all of the work that the opposition party has been doing. On this file, we have actually not been an opposition party but working hand-in-hand. We recognize the importance of the $2 billion-a-day in trade, the nine million jobs, and what that means to Canadians. Not only have we been travelling to different parts of the U.S. with the trade committee, we have also been travelling to the governor's meetings together, and other types of events, where we can highlight Canada's interests in the U.S., and how that interacts with NAFTA.
When we talk about NAFTA, there is one thing to be aware of. We have been holding round tables right across Canada, in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Atlantic Canada, and Ontario, and will be doing more in Manitoba and Alberta, to get our companies to recognize that they need to engage with their customers and suppliers in the U.S., and with respect to how important it is to keep that border thin, and to not let any harm happen to that relationship. They get it. They have actually been talking about it. When I do my presentation, the first thing I point out is that this is a very non-partisan issue. They appreciate that. I look forward to working with the government as we move forward on this file.
There are a few questions that I will ask with respect to NAFTA that maybe the minister can clarify, because I know these questions are coming up.
When we are looking at NAFTA, instead of looking at it in a context of a bloc of North America, we should be looking at what we can do to make it more competitive in the world, more efficient, and more productive, and not in the context of, “What can I get from Mexico? What can I get from the U.S.”, and vice versa. That concerns a lot of the business community, as that context is not appropriate.
I guess there is a lot of instability in the business community right now, because they are not sure what is happening with NAFTA, and the border adjustment tax would be another issue. If only we could just clarify some things. The first is with respect to the chain of command when it comes to negotiating NAFTA, because Mexico is involved. I know the parliamentary secretary works on Canada-U.S. relations, but I am not sure how the minister and the Minister of International Trade will be working together with respect to NAFTA.
Could she quickly answer that?