International Trade committee  We do. We are a lead member with their trade accelerator program, which Ms. De Silva spoke of this morning. We act as a mentor for the companies they've selected to nurture and educate on how to go global. We also work with, as I mentioned, these other companies. Startup Canada is another great organization that's an incubator for very small businesses, micro-businesses, and we've been doing these go global boot camps with them.

International Trade committee  It also provides consumers access to—

International Trade committee  We also service consumers. More and more of the percentage of the shipments we deliver, a high percentage, is going to consumers. We look at consumers as our customers versus years ago when it was just the businesses selling A to B. The agreement we see gives consumers advantage in terms of access to goods.

International Trade committee  I would say UPS works closely with groups like the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, that are in support of this agreement, and are made up of members that are producing goods in Canada and exporting. As I mentioned earlier, it does address digital commerce, and in our view the innovation agenda ties strongly to small business and the ability of Canadian companies to leverage the Internet to sell—

International Trade committee  We look at all of this, and the competitive or disadvantage to organizations. I would say Canada has the same provisions as it is seeking to compete with in these other countries. It's a provision they can also leverage. It's a fact of the matter of competition. If we look at it, there's the competition that is going to come into Canada regardless.

International Trade committee  I don't have jobs related to the TPP specifically, but what I can tell you is that at UPS, every 22 packages that cross the border create or sustain a job at our company. We've certainly seen patterns that once a trade agreement is signed, we see growth in our volume, which leads us to expand our facilities and to add jobs across all areas, including teamster jobs and management positions.

International Trade committee  I can't quantify specifically to this agreement. We are looking through analysis on projected growth of volume.

International Trade committee  As we're reviewing all these provisions, global commerce continues. It is our opinion that we need to expedite the opportunity to enable small businesses to grow.

International Trade committee  We call this the modern trade agreement because it is addressing many issues that previous agreements did not, including NAFTA. There's a lot of work right now with the Beyond the Border agreement and various working groups to address what wasn't included in NAFTA, because commerce has changed.

International Trade committee  Sure. I won't name them, but I can give you an example of recent companies that we've met with. We had one recently speak to management at our organization. It's a tea company. They're tea manufacturers, and they started in their home. Then they started to expand beyond their borders and now they're shipping all over the world.

International Trade committee  There are provisions in there to prevent those barriers from happening in the first place—the friction.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and committee members. Good morning. My name is Cristina Falcone, and I am honoured to be here to testify on behalf of UPS Canada, our over 12,000 employees, and the thousands of businesses and consumers we serve across the country. As a global logistics company, UPS has watched businesses grow from tiny home operations to companies with formidable reach outside their borders.

International Trade committee  Again, as I mentioned before, we work on capacity. That trade deficit is important to us. We know that imports are critical, because often they end up being part of exported goods. We don't want to send out empty planes. If we have capacity coming into Canada and going out, it improves our cost to serve, which helps us win more business.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  Sure there is. Certainly for the business community, the associations, private sectors that are going to benefit, it's our responsibility to educate. We would just encourage the government to continue to do what you've done through this initial text in getting the word out, and if with the provincial counterparts you can do that as well, we think that would be helpful.