International trade seminar to focus on Canadian exports
April 20, 2018
Trade with Canada will be the focus of an upcoming visit from the acting consul general of Canada.
Paul Connors is based in Minnesota, and his team covers a five-state area that includes South Dakota.
His trip to Sioux Falls on May 1 is motivated by the NAFTA negotiations and promoting the new and updated agreement.
“I’m making a trip to Sioux Falls to focus on the great economic relationships as facilitated by NAFTA,” Connors said. “I think it’s a really good opportunity to come and hear Canada’s perspective on how the NAFTA negotiations are going and why the NAFTA negotiations are important.”
Canada is the U.S. and South Dakota’s largest export market, supporting an estimated 28,600 jobs in the state. South Dakota exports $536 million in goods and $107 million in services there annually.
Area companies with strong relationships in the country include Rosenbauer Fire Apparatus in Lyons, which ships about 100 firetrucks annually to Canada, and Raven Industries, which exports its precision agriculture equipment.
“There are 25 Canadian companies in South Dakota employing almost 3,000 South Dakotans,” Connors added.
The program May 1 will include information for businesses exporting to Canada or considering it, as well as an update on the NAFTA negotiations.
The Trump administration has been critical of the free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico at times during the negotiations, but talks have resumed after appearing close to dissolving a few months ago.
Canada wants “to emphasize the positive,” Connors said. “The three countries have agreed to renegotiate NAFTA, and that is certainly our goal.”
The Canada-U.S. relationship “is fantastic in all its elements,” he continued. “We’re friends and allies. We stand shoulder to shoulder internationally and in close cooperation securing our borders. We have a great economic relationship. We want to make that great economic relationship even better, and we believe we can do that.”
To learn more about the Sioux Falls International Trade Seminar, click here.
