Mr. Speaker, today is a big day for Canada. We have just introduced legislation to ratify the new NAFTA and secure free trade across North America.
When the Americans announced their intention to renegotiate NAFTA almost two years ago, Canadians immediately rose to the challenge. It would be an opportunity for us to modernize this agreement that had been so beneficial to Canada in order to better reflect today's realities.
We put together an extraordinary team to help us. Provincial premiers, mayors, MPs of all political stripes, business leaders, indigenous leaders, unions, and even a former prime minister helped us assert our interests.
Right from the start, we set hard targets and determined those things that were non-negotiable to us. A NAFTA without a dispute resolution mechanism or a Canadian cultural exemption was not a NAFTA that Canada would sign. A NAFTA that called for the abolition of supply management or did not rule out the possibility of auto tariffs on Canada was not a NAFTA that we would sign.
We were convinced that a win-win-win agreement was possible, so we stayed the course. Last October, news of an agreement proved us right.
Modernizing NAFTA was no small task. Our partners are tough negotiators and tensions sometimes ran high, but Canada always stood firm. We refused to back down.
When the U.S. imposed section 232 tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum nearly a year ago, Canada immediately hit back with retaliatory tariffs. We did everything in our power to protect Canadian workers and their families and to ensure the success of our economy, and it paid off. Less than two weeks ago, the United States announced that tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum would be fully removed, and Canada lifted its retaliatory tariffs, clearing the last major obstacle standing in the way of our ratification of the new NAFTA.
Throughout these negotiations, our goal was always clear: get a good deal that was good for Canadian workers, good for Canadian business and good for Canadian families. We have been working for more than a year to secure that deal and to get the tariffs removed. We remained in constant communication with our counterparts, holding countless meetings and making more phone calls over the course of the negotiations.
Our resolve never wavered, because we knew how important free trade was to the North American economy. We knew how important it was to families whose jobs and businesses depend on a strong relationship with our partners. They were counting on us, and we had their backs.
With trade between NAFTA members valued at nearly $1.5 trillion in 2018, we cannot overstate how vital it is to maintain free and fair trade between our three countries. Our supply chains are totally integrated. Our companies rely on one another to produce incredible North American products. Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are at their most efficient, most secure and most profitable when they work together, and it is about time we got back to that way of thinking.
With the tariffs now lifted, members of the House can now move to begin the ratification process of the new NAFTA. A new NAFTA secures access to the North American market for our business owners, entrepreneurs and consumers. It removes uncertainty for our manufacturers, our investors and our workers. A new NAFTA is good for Canada and good for Canadians.
This agreement will protect jobs and create new ones. It alleviates fears of new tariffs on our automakers, and while it does offer new access to supply-managed sectors in line with what the Conservative government conceded during the TPP negotiations, it also comes with the promise that those working in the dairy, poultry and egg sectors will be fully and fairly compensated. Of course, let me remind the House that in budget 2019, we committed $3.9 billion to compensate supply-managed sectors for changes made in CETA and CPTPP.
It also improves labour rights. It preserves the Canadian cultural exception in the digital age. It includes a new, enforceable chapter on the environment that upholds air quality and fights ocean pollution. With the proportionality clause now gone, it asserts Canada's full control over our energy resources.
This agreement is great news for the workers who make Michelin tires in Nova Scotia, for the men and women who work at the Toyota plant in Cambridge, Ontario, and for the ranchers and farmers who sell Canadian beef to our southern neighbours.
The new NAFTA will secure access to a trading zone that accounts for more than a quarter of the global economy, and it is now time for the members of the House to ratify it.
We owe a huge thanks to the Canadian negotiation team, without which we would not be here today. I also want to thank Ambassador MacNaughton, Steve Verheul, lead negotiator, the member for Orléans, the public officials, the negotiators, and, of course, the incredible Minister of Foreign Affairs and member for University—Rosedale. They worked very hard to get this agreement done.
We thank them for their unwavering commitment to our workers, our industries and our economy, for defending our interests and upholding our values. They showed the world what we already knew to be true of our friends, colleagues and neighbours: that Canadians are nice, reasonable people, but we will not be pushed around.
I want to end with a thank you, perhaps most importantly, to Canadians themselves. I know that these negotiations created a lot of uncertainty for many of them and their families. They worried about their jobs, their businesses, about their clients. They wondered what would happen if we did not reach a deal, what it would mean for their retirement, for their kids and for their community.
And frankly, how could they not? They knew perhaps better than anyone what was at stake. They were reminded of it every morning when they punched in and every night when they sat down for dinner with their families.
During negotiations that sometimes seemed endless, we asked Canadians to be patient. We asked them to trust us, and I know that sometimes that was a lot to ask.
However, in the face of adversity, we did what we have always done: we stood together. We were there for each other and we went through this uncertain time together.
During the negotiations, Canadians from towns and cities right across the country, as well as mayors, premiers and members of the NAFTA Council, came together as a singular voice, as one Team Canada.
That is how we reached a new NAFTA. That is how we got the tariffs lifted. That is how we are moving forward today with this legislation, as one Team Canada.
