Canada Looks For New Markets

For Canada, the global economic crisis has forced businesses to look for markets outside of the U.S., Forbes reports. Canada, with its small domestic market and vast resource base, has long been heavily dependent on exports to the U.S. Some 87% of all exports went to the U.S. in 2000. Last year, that figure dropped to 78% and the May 2009 figure was down to 71%.

Instead of the U.S., exporters are beginning to focus on the Persian Gulf, still experiencing a construction boom, and India for telecoms and manufacturing. Kazakhstan, with vast tracts of unused arable land, is fertile ground for farm equipment manufacturers. “There’s nothing that gets the juices flowing more than a good old-fashioned crisis, and we’ve got two years under our belt right now where we’ve seen significant diversification,” said Peter Hall, chief economist at Export Development Canada.

The agency supported C$22 billion (USD$20 billion) in sales and investment to emerging markets in 2008, from C$15 billion in 2006. Hall said the U.S. will always be Canada’s dominant trade partner. But emerging markets, which economists say will fuel the global economic recovery, will absorb a growing chunk of exports.