Honourable senators, I'm rising to speak on Bill C-30, an Act to implement the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union, the CETA. This is a monumental agreement for Canada. It will provide preferential access for Canadians to an economic bloc of more than 500 million people with a gross domestic product currently worth some $17 trillion.

This will provide immense benefits to Canadians. At home, it means lower prices when it comes to European imports, as well as more choice for Canadians. In the European market, for Canadian exporters, preferential access to such a huge market means expanded business opportunities, and with that, more jobs that are higher paying in the export sector.

The many benefits of CETA will be felt rapidly. On the day CETA comes into force, 100 per cent of all EU tariff lines on non-agriculture products will be duty-free, together with nearly 94 per cent of EU tariff lines on agriculture products. Canadian service suppliers, a sector which employs 13.8 million Canadians, will receive the best market access that the EU has ever granted to any free-trade partner. Likewise, the EU's $3.3 trillion government procurement market will be open to secure preferential access for Canadian suppliers, representing a significant new export opportunity.

Looking at the opportunities more broadly, when Canada launched negotiations with the EU, a joint Canada-EU study found that a comprehensive agreement between Canada and the EU would generate a 20 per cent increase in bilateral trade, bringing with it a $12-billion annual boost to the Canadian economy. This has the potential to add 80,000 new jobs to the Canadian economy and boost average Canadian family income by $1,000 per year.

The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement has been increasingly described as a gold standard agreement for Canada. Indeed, in terms of the impact and the benefits it will bring to Canadians, that is an apt description.

The European Union is already the second largest exporter and trade partner of my province, Quebec. Many sectors, including advanced manufacturing, mineral and metal products, and agriculture are well positioned to benefit immensely from CETA. Not only does the agreement give Canadians preferential access to European markets while offering Canadian consumers more choice and lower prices, but it contains better investment dispute resolution mechanisms and it enhances strict environmental and labour protection standards.

I also believe that CETA is an ideal agreement for Canada for two other reasons. First, CETA represents the culmination of Canada's longstanding efforts — especially in the past ten years — to strengthen its trade and economic relations with the rest of the world. Why? Because free trade agreements are the engines of economic growth and they lay the foundation for creating high-quality jobs for Canadians. In short, free trade serves Canada's national interests.

Business and political leaders have known this for a long time as evidenced by the consensus that began to take shape in the 1980s. Brian Mulroney took a political risk by launching the Canada-U.S. free trade negotiations. Roundly criticized at the time, he was forced to hold an election in 1988 on the issue of free trade, which he believed offered tremendous potential and possibilities. In the end, the Canadian people agreed with him.

Once the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement came into force, trade with the United States tripled. Despite the misgivings of many people, who feared that major Canadian industry was incapable of competing on the free market with our neighbour to the south, Canadians rose to the challenge. Far from disappearing, many sectors were strengthened and became world leaders with access to major new markets. These free trade talks gave Canadians renewed confidence and other governments followed suit and rose to the challenge.

Trade liberalization became the cornerstone of the Harper government approach. From 2006 to 2015, Canada concluded negotiations on seven bilateral trade agreements and three multilateral trade agreements involving 46 different countries. This trade agenda, unprecedented in Canadian history, ushered in the conditions for increased opportunities and prosperity for years to come.

The former Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, recently said that NAFTA, CETA, and other trade agreements combined give Canada unfettered access to 60 per cent of the world's economy. According to Mr. Charest, we are set to become a hub of the global trade of goods and services, as well as of investments, not to mention the mobility of people and labour.

He is not alone in that thinking. Groups such as the Business Council of Canada, the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, and countless others share Mr. Charest's opinion. They point not only to the opportunities created through the trade agreements concluded over the past few decades, but also to the risk of failing to have strong measures with regard to both promoting the coming into force of CETA, and consistently pursuing new opportunities.

As former Prime Minister Harper recently noted:

The world desperately needs more international trade agreements. In an age where structural deficits, loose money and low growth are becoming the norm, trade expansion represents one of the few tools to spur job creation and economic growth in developing countries.

The Government of Canada needs to ensure that it takes up this call and continues to pursue new trade opportunities in the most vigorous manner.

We live in a time of increasing skepticism about the value of free trade. Countries are becoming more protectionist. This represents both a danger for Canada as well as an opportunity. On the one hand, we are at risk as some of our leading trade partners become more skeptical about the value of their current trade agreements, but, on the other hand, this also gives us a potential opportunity to capitalize and, in the words of Mr. Charest, make ourselves a "world trade hub." The first move or advantage can be pivotal in positioning Canada for access in a very challenging world market.

One example of both the pitfalls and the opportunities for Canada is already at play in Europe. We know that our leading trading partner in Europe, the United Kingdom, has decided to leave the European Union. This is obviously a worry for Canada in that the U.K. makes up more than one fifth of the EU's collective GDP. However, this also provides the government of Canada with an opportunity to take the lead in protecting and deepening our overall economic relationship with the U.K. in the months and years ahead.

In short, we cannot afford to become in any way complacent. Even at a time when we are celebrating one of our greatest trade triumphs, we need to see the opportunities that are present in the challenges and dangers that we face.

This brings me to another way in which CETA represents the gold standard for the Government of Canada. The CETA agreement has been under negotiation since 2007. The agreement in principle between Canada and the EU was signed in October 2013, and the final agreement was signed a full three years later, in October 2016. The negotiation of this agreement therefore spanned a decade and two Canadian governments. The previous Harper government, which initiated the process, as well as the current Trudeau government have been strongly committed to the agreement. This national consensus has been absolutely vital because these trade agreements are so complex and involve so many of our economic sectors. Political consensus, over an extended period of time, is essential. Only through such a consensus are we able to forge a truly national approach and ensure that no sector, province or region of Canada is forgotten.

Historically, we have always come together to forge cross-party political unity during times when we have faced our most serious international challenges. It is fitting that such political unity has emerged again on the matter of Canada's international economic interests. It is nice to see that the Liberal Party has also come to embrace its more traditional position on free trade, based not only on the economic opportunities that free trade represents but also given the opportunities that now exist for Canada to diversify its international economic relations.

We will all need to work harder to ensure that the unity that exists today can be sustained in the years ahead. This means that we will need to have a detailed appreciation of how individual Canadian economic sectors both benefit and are challenged by international trade agreements. Governments and legislators will need to work with and listen to those sectors to respond in a way that helps to bridge the transition from protection to freer trade.

In this regard, it will be extremely important for the government to keep promises made to our dairy sector, as well as to Newfoundland and Labrador in relation to the CETA Fisheries Investment Fund. In other countries, governments have too often ignored or glossed over the immediate economic impacts of comprehensive trade agreements. The consequences of such ill-considered approaches are today being felt both in Europe and, particularly, in the United States.

I ask that the government listen closely to our dairy farmers, to the representatives of Newfoundland and Labrador's fishing sectors, to those who represent our shipping sectors on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River and to all potentially vulnerable sectors to provide the full measure of interim support that may be required. We will begin that process in the Senate through our own committee hearings. It will be vital for the government to monitor that very closely.

The conclusion of CETA is a great accomplishment for Canada. The Conservative opposition is, of course, strongly in support of the agreement. We are very proud not only to have initiated the CETA process but also to have played a pivotal role in forging our current national free trade consensus.

It has been a privilege to speak in support of Bill C-30, which, when passed, will implement CETA. I'm very proud to stand in support of the bill, and I encourage all colleagues to do so.