Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today on behalf of my constituents in the great riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke to be part of the debate ushering in a cornerstone of the legacy of prime minister Stephen Harper. I will start by recognizing the hard work over the past decade by our world-class trade negotiators and Prime Minister Harper, whose vision led this Parliament to pass a record number of free trade agreements.
The path to reaching the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership began under the previous Conservative government. We would not be here today were it not for the hard work and heavy lifting by Canada's longest serving and, easily arguable, best minister of international trade in decades, the hon. member for Abbotsford. Canada's consumers, entrepreneurs, farmers, miners and manufacturers will benefit under this agreement, thanks to the hard work of the member for Abbotsford.
For my constituents who faithfully follow the speeches in Parliament and anyone else watching at home, it is necessary to explain the importance of trade and what this trade agreement is all about. Trade agreements are important because one out of every five Canadian jobs depends on international trade, and these essential trading relationships help generate 60% of our nation's wealth as measured by gross domestic product.
The CPTPP is a comprehensive agreement for a trans-Pacific trade partnership. It is the current version to the trade agreement with countries of the Pacific Rim signed by the previous Conservative government. It includes 11 countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It was signed in March of this year and after the Prime Minister's failures on the North American Free Trade Agreement, there now seems to be some attention being paid to trade agreements, which has been lacking by the government.
The sense of urgency to pass Bill C-79 now and to ratify the CPTPP may be a result of concessions by the Liberal Party to give a foreign country, in this case the United States, veto power over whom Canada can sign a trade agreement with. Vietnam, one of the signatories to the CPTPP, is considered a non-market economy. The Liberals, under the terms of the botched NAFTA renegotiation, surrendered Canadian sovereignty.
As a result, the United States could exercise the power given to them by the Liberal Party and veto our participation in the CPTPP because of the presence of Vietnam in the agreement. It did not have to be this way. If the current government had taken seriously the need to be proactive in seeking out new markets for Canadian products, this agreement, which was handed to the current government ready to go, would be in place now and we would not have to have this debate so late in the game.
Hopefully, after the botched negotiations with the Americans over NAFTA, the Conservative Party, Canada's government in waiting, will help this bumbling government get the job done with the trade agreement it handed to them ready to be signed. CPTPP reduces tariffs in countries representing 13% of the global economy, or a total of $10 trillion. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that the Pacific Rim trade agreement version signed by the previous Conservative government would boost Canadian income by over $20 billion over the next decade.
The agreement comes into force 60 days after at least six signatory countries ratify it and the deadline to ratify it is February of 2019. After that, we lose our first-mover advantage, the way Canada lost out when we came on board after the U.S. and Mexico signed a trade agreement to replace NAFTA. Canada will have to play catch-up with the other signatory countries if we continue to delay.
Canadians are, indeed, fortunate for all of the heavy lifting done by the previous Conservative government on this trade agreement. Many Canadians I spoke to in the last several months were convinced that the hidden Liberal agenda on NAFTA was aimed at failing. The decision by the Liberal Party to sell out Canadian agricultural producers, in this case dairy farmers, by failing to protect farmers, consumers and taxpayers during trade negotiations with our largest trading partner is only more bad news for Canadians already suffering from huge debt and huge taxation levels.
The sell-out was inevitable, considering how badly the Canadian-American relationship has been mismanaged. The Liberal Party responded to the election pledge by the U.S. President to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement with a $20 million gift to the Clinton Foundation. Yes, that is the same U.S. political presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, who was tapped to participate in the controversial pay-to-play cash for access fundraisers favoured by the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party put partisan interests above the good of Canada.
Canadian control of Canada's food supply and the efficient use of resources to deliver nutritious high-quality products from the farm gate to the consumer's kitchen table is at the core of Canada's supply management system. Farmers have not recovered from the last attack on their livelihoods, made last summer when the Liberal finance minister started to change the tax laws to make it easier for people to lose their family farm to foreigners and corporations than it was to pass the family farm on to the next generation. While Conservatives support the family farm as the heart of rural life, food security, just like border security, is a low priority for the selfie Prime Minister, who is obsessed with himself.
The Conservatives have negotiated dozens of trade deals without losing supply management. We have never been in such a weak negotiating position where supply management could be used a barrier to a trade deal. If Canadian food security were a sticking point to an agreement, that is an indictment of the current government and the extraordinarily weak position it has left Canada in. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs and the overall health of our country depend on trade. This is why Canadians are so fortunate to have had this trade agreement we are discussing today negotiated by our previous Conservative government.
A Conservative government would never have been so disrespectful of someone like the political leader of our largest trading partner, whose good will so many Canadian jobs depend upon. The United States is Canada's most important trading partner. Twenty per cent of Canada's GDP is tied to our commercial relationship with the United States, and over 74% of Canadian exports go to the United States. The member for University—Rosedale should have known better than to appear, in the middle of sensitive trade negotiations, on a panel with extremists that featured a video slandering the U.S. president. As the global affairs minister, she should have been instructed that the fine art of diplomacy does not tolerate amateurs.
The livelihoods of families are at stake. Canadians cannot afford a government that puts its own political interests ahead of the country's economy and Canadian jobs. Conservatives believe in clean air, low taxes and good jobs and a healthy economy. A clean environment and well-paying jobs are only possible when people are treated with respect. The gains Canadians made from the hard work of our previous Conservative government to cut taxes for all Canadians and successfully negotiate favourable new trade deals are being undone by the Liberal spending government. In its zeal to undo our Conservative legacy on justice for victims, funding for our military, and cutting taxes for low-income Canadians first and foremost, the government ignored trade. Only now has the Liberal Party seen the wisdom in the Conservative policy of pursuing multiple trade agreements.
The Liberals opposed Conservative cuts to the GST and HST and now propose a bogus carbon tax, which is nothing more than an HST on steroids. A tax is a tax is a tax, and excessive taxation kills Canadian jobs. Conservative trade policy creates jobs.
With the CPTPP, the current government has embraced our Conservative legacy on trade, and we can be thankful that we are passing CPTPP now because the economic future of Canada does not look good under this Liberal spending government. The regressive left has never believed in free trade.
Auto workers and pensioners in places like Windsor and St. Catharines tell me that they are in mortal fear of losing their jobs and any hope of a comfortable retirement when the carbon tax hits their households.
Our Conservative government pursued trade deals among our allies and developing democracies with so much energy because of our vision for Canada and the confidence Conservatives have in Canadians.