France and Canada Lean In on Trade

Guest: Nicolas Baudouin

By Stuart McNish

The US tariffs are officially in place and Canada was hit hard. The rhetoric leading up to the imposition of the tariffs focused on a need to develop new trading relationships and expand existing ones. Canada and France have a trading history that goes back hundreds of years. Then in 2016, Canada signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union.

The signing of the agreement opened up greater tariff-free access to France and EU countries. According to the Jean Monnet Network at Carleton University, “trade between Canada and the EU has seen an exponential growth since CETA was implemented.” According to the report, France was the number four trading partner, valued at over $4.4 billion dollars trade in 2021.

“Now is the time to seize on strengthening and building on our trading relationship between British Columbia, Canada, and France,” says Nicolas Baudouin, the French Consul General in British Columbia. “The opportunities are vast and go beyond agri-tech, high value food, and aeronautices,” says Baudouin.

We invited Consul General Nicolas Baudouin of France to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the opportunities and the challenges of increasing trade with one of our oldest international partners.

You can see the interview here https://www.conversationsthatmatter.ca/

Learn More about our guests career at careersthatmatter.ca