Mr. Speaker, I rose in the House on April 19, which was 12 days before the U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel came down. It was a very difficult time, but it pales in comparison to where we find ourselves today. I want to remind members that we are talking about 146,000 direct and indirect good-paying steel and aluminum jobs across our country, many of which are in my riding of Essex, certainly in southwestern Ontario in Windsor-Essex.
At that time the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs was reassuring us that they were going to be able to achieve this permanent exemption. They felt that they were working hard on it and were working hard to make this become a reality. As we know, 12 days later, we were slammed with the steel and aluminum tariffs which for the last five months we have really been suffering under greatly. Working people across our country are losing their jobs. Small business owners in my region are faced with closing their doors.
This reassurance did not come to pass and it is deeply unfortunate. It is incumbent on the government to continue the efforts to get a permanent exemption. I know that the government has tried to remove this and extract it from NAFTA, but to say that these things are not connected is simply fooling Canadians because these things are all deeply connected to the difficult times we are having with the United States right now.
In the NAFTA negotiations we have to have a conversation about the steel and aluminum tariffs and the impacts as well as the looming threat of a 25% auto tariff which is quite considerable.
The Liberals' failures are hurting workers and industries across this country. The Prime Minister all but promised he would secure a deal with former President Obama on softwood lumber but that did not happen. With regard to the CPTPP, the Liberals promised a progressive renegotiation, yet what we see is anything but progressive. In fact, “progressive” has been removed from the Prime Minister's mandate letter to the new Minister of International Trade Diversification.
In CETA, the Liberals promised new markets and support for Canada's supply-managed sectors, but one year into CETA and Canada's trade imbalance with the EU is growing and our support is not reaching our dairy farmers and our other supply-managed sectors.
The Liberals pledged to secure a good deal for Canada under NAFTA. Time is running out and Canadians are deeply worried.
On U.S. tariffs, again the Liberals pledged to secure a permanent exemption, but obviously this did not happen. Now our auto sector is very concerned that it will be faced with the same job-killing tariffs.
It is clear that the Liberals' trade strategy is not delivering the results they promised for working Canadians. Canada has roughly collected $300 million in retaliatory tariffs in the surtaxes that have been imposed on U.S. goods after President Trump's imposition of the steel and aluminum tariffs and our reciprocal tariffs.
Two billion dollars was promised by the Liberals to support these sectors and it is simply not reaching them. The amount that has reached them is $11,000. I am going to repeat that because someone asked me today if I had omitted a zero. I have not. Some $11,000 has been paid out. I have businesses in my riding that are desperate. Workers are worried about whether they are going to have a job to go to tomorrow. The government is failing at delivering this package to them. It is failing in giving them support.
The New Democrats have called on the government to establish a national tariff task force. This is exactly what we need to do at this critical time in our trading relationships to support workers across this country.