Mr. Speaker, this question would be more appropriately put to the Minister of Finance, but unfortunately I did not get the question in then. I am hoping that he will feel he can speak on behalf of the government on this point.
As we go into this war of nationalist populism with the U.S. government and hope to come out on the other side, as we did last time, with our economy intact, I am particularly concerned that we not cut loose our other trading partner, Mexico. Mexico suffered grievously through NAFTA and lost 1.3 million farm jobs. Its agricultural sector suffered. In the maquiladoras, labour rights were abused and the environment damaged. It would be easy for us now to say, “So much for Mexico. We have our own fight with Trump.”
I wonder if the Canadian government is prepared to hold fast and allow trading partners from the original NAFTA, now CUSMA, to stick together against a U.S. president who wants to flex tariff muscles.