Madam Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak today on trade and the benefits of CETA.
The reality is that anti-trade sentiments are rising around the world. There is an increase in protectionist attitudes in the U.S. and other countries previously seen as welcoming to global commerce, which could make it challenging to progress in negotiating trade deals, and there are a lot of misconceptions about free trade.
Canada is a nation that was built on trade and continues to rely on it heavily for our continued prosperity. Our predecessors knew that opening borders and exchanging with our neighbours was a pathway to strength and security for our nation and its citizens. Our government supports this long-standing practice of opening foreign markets through trade agreements.
Through the years, the process of trade has evolved, with innovation leading to faster, more reliable, and more efficient exchanges across borders. For example, technological advances have helped overcome barriers of time and distance and have made it much more of a reality to find trading partners throughout the world.
Concretely, it means that many of the burdensome and costly processes required to explore, pursue, and deliver on international business opportunities are now easier for Canadian companies.
As a side note, the changing accessibility of markets highlights an important challenge for many business owners and entrepreneurs in my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets, as so many businesses rely on quality high-speed Internet in order to communicate with suppliers and expand trade opportunities around the world. I was thrilled with the announcement by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development of the connect to innovate program, which invests $500 million over five years to support the development of broadband infrastructure. I have spoken with many organizations in my riding that are considering putting forward applications for this program. I hope that this will be a great first step in getting more reliable Internet to rural parts of my riding. Our government is actively working to address these barriers to trade and business expansion.
However, to get back to CETA, trade is fundamental to the prosperity of Canada, just as it is for the world economy. Canada is among the most open of the G7 countries, ranking second in terms of both trade and foreign direct investment as a share of GDP. In Canada, one in six jobs is related to exports. Canadian exports of goods and services are equivalent to just under one-third of our GDP, and Canada's total trade is equivalent in size to nearly two-thirds of our GDP. There were more than 43,500 Canadian goods exporting companies in 2014, most of which are small and medium-size enterprises.
As a medium-sized economy, we depend on trade to increase tax revenues to our public accounts, so we can invest in Canada's physical infrastructure, security infrastructure, and public services. Increased trade means increased job creation, increased income, resulting in a higher standard of living. Canada is ranked high in all of these categories, thanks in part to our trade around the world.
Open trade benefits Canadian consumers by increasing product selection and lower prices resulting from the elimination of unnecessary trade barriers, be they traditional, such as tariffs, or technical, such as having heavy bureaucratic burden. It benefits Canadian businesses by opening up new markets and opportunities for our world-class workers, producers, and manufacturers.
Trade agreements open international markets to Canadians goods and services and help counter protectionism. These agreements improve operating conditions for our firms by committing countries to transparent, predictable, rules-based systems. This helps establish a more stable environment for trade and investment and is especially important for middle-sized economies such as Canada's.
The context of international trade is changing. In light of this change, and in order to counter rising anti-trade sentiments, the government has moved above and beyond the traditional model, policies, and mechanisms to pursue trade, becoming a leading force in certain fields. It is the government's progressive trade agenda policy that I am referring to.
We have recently witnessed the success of progressive trade with CETA. Our government has made enhancements to CETA in order to strengthen and introduce progressive elements related to environmental protection, workers' rights, consumers' health and safety, and the government's right to regulate. These were key issues that needed to be addressed properly in order to gain the support of some member states within the EU before we signed CETA, permitting the ratification of this progressive agreement in the Council of the European Union.
Nova Scotia's aging population, jobs, and economic growth and challenges, matching those looking for work with the vacancies available, are issues I hear about every day. However, we are not elected to just talk about challenges, we are here to talk about and find solutions.
As members may be aware, the federal government and provincial governments of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador have launched the Atlantic growth strategy, which is in response to some of the systemic issues we have seen in Atlantic Canada for some time. We have not seen a lot of progress on these issues under previous governments, unfortunately. What we Atlantic Canadian MPs can see clearly, which I think many business owners can see clearly, is that Atlantic Canada is home to some of the highest-quality products in the world and that there are markets that are willing to pay for our high-quality products.
As a government, it is our job to reduce those barriers to get our products to their markets, to help our small, medium, and large-sized businesses succeed. CETA is a pathway to achieving that end. By removing some of the barriers to trade, it means we can get lobsters, wines, tires, airplane parts, fruit juices, Christmas trees, and many other goods to European markets more easily and at more competitive rates than they are right now.
We have the CanExport program, announced in January of 2016 by our government, which is designed to provide up to $50 million over five years in direct financial support to small and medium-sized companies to access new export opportunities, as well as The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service's network. It is not just goods. Implementing CETA will mean that innovative and entrepreneurial Canadians would be able to offer their services more easily to European businesses and governments. As former American President Obama said on his visit to Ottawa, “the world needs more Canada”. CETA is one way to help grow Canadian businesses and help them create jobs while sharing what Canadians have to offer with the world.
My message today is a simple one: free trade has and will continue to transform the world for the better. We should be confident about what can be achieved through trade. Trade means economic growth and job creation in Atlantic Canada. In pursuit of prosperity, we should continue to challenge those who oppose trade. We should welcome a golden opportunity like CETA and other free trade agreements to forge a new role in the world, one which puts Canadians first.
I encourage all hon. members to support this bill. Their support would indicate to Canadians that we want to succeed in today's globalized world while staying true to our core principles.
