Hon. Danièle Henkel: Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc.

Today, Canadian SMEs that export to the United States have to follow the CUSMA rules of origin to avoid tariffs. However, if President Trump gets his way in July and dismantles CUSMA in favour of a bilateral agreement, these rules of origin could change overnight.

What exactly are you negotiating on behalf of Canadian SMEs? To what extent were they consulted before you walked into the room?

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., M.P., President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Internal Trade and One Canadian Economy: We’ve held substantial consultations with a number of organizations representing SMEs, as you rightly mentioned, with the provinces and territories and with sectors hit with sector-specific tariffs. We held public consultations. This week, I also met with two other important sectors of Canada’s economy to discuss these concerns.

I don’t want to disagree with your remarks, but I don’t think that we’re going to end up with bilateral agreements. I think we will still have a trilateral agreement. If the parties want to discuss the rules of origin, we will be —

The Hon. the Speaker: Thank you, minister.