The President of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association has high hopes for 2019.
Flavio Volpe spent a lot of time in Washington in the later part of 2018 helping to work out the terms of the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement, the new trade pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Volpe calls the the signing of the new trade deal one of the most positive things to look forward to.
"It sets in motion a set of rules that require our current customers to buy about 25-30% more volume from us," he says. "It will be a sales boost for anybody who is smart enough to want it."
The new trade agreement still needs to be approved by U.S. Congress along with the Canadian and Mexican governments.
Volpe says the next few years should be positive for parts of the auto sector once the deal is approved.
("We anticipate that probably means by full transition in three years, $6-billion to $8-billion more purchases in Canada, of volume supplies and tools," he says "We haven't seen growth like that in such a short period, ever."
He also points out that Canada's auto sector made it through a challenging year in 2018.
("The biggest challenge we've ever had, where we've had a bulls eye on us publicly from a very belligerent president who doesn't care for rules or conventions or results," says Volpe. "We made it through and I think everybody who works in this space deserves a little bit of that credit."
Volpe adds that steel and aluminium tariffs remain a concern, but he hopes that can be resolved once the USMCA is ratified.