Some Canada exporters say NAFTA talks impacting business — Survey

OTTAWA: Nearly one in four Canadian exporters believes the tense ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is impacting operations, according to a poll.

“Canadian exporters have many reasons to be fearful and to pivot their business strategies right now,” said Export Development Canada, the public agency which published the results.

“Anti-trade rhetoric continues to dominate the headlines; major trade agreements are being renegotiated or scuttled and there’s a real- time threat to Canada’s relationship with its largest trading partner,” Canada’s export credit agency said, referring to the United States.

The survey showed that 23 per cent of Canadian businesses said they were ‘ feeling negatively’ about negotiations to rewrite NAFTA, the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Faced with the situation, 26 per cent of the companies surveyed are planning to transfer parts of their activities.

Nearly a quarter of companies are trying to diversify their exports or investments outside of North America, while 14 per cent are postponing their investments and 13 per cent their hires.

And with the Canada-EU CETA agreement entering into force in September, 18 per cent of companies say they are developing new products, services or production processes for Europe, while 15 per cent say they are increasing their production to augment export volumes. — AFP