With the long history of trade between the New England region and Atlantic Canada, the Team Atlantic trade mission is a natural next step, Prince Edward Island Premier Pat Binns said at a business dinner in New Hampshire Wednesday evening.
"Our two regions have been swapping goods, services, technology, people and ideas for more than two centuries," Premier Binns told the crowd at Manchester's Holiday Inn.
That trade relationship slowed when trade tariffs were erected following the Second World War, but in the past decade, with the introduction of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, trade barriers have been stripped away.
"After long and arduous negotiations, the other parts of both our countries have finally realized what we have known all along — we are our own best trading partners."
And since the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement five years ago, the picture has only gotten better.
"Since NAFTA, trade between our regions, which has always been strong, has increased by approximately 40 per cent in each direction. Exports of Atlantic Canadian goods to New England have increased by 39 per cent. And the increase of exports from New England to Atlantic Canada was slightly more, at 43 per cent," the premier said. "The governments, and the business community of Atlantic Canada would like to see those numbers maintained and maybe even increased."
That's why initiatives like the Team Atlantic trade mission are so vital to both regions, he said.
Team Atlantic is a four-day trade delegation representing the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. The purpose of the trade mission is to establish new business partnerships, increase trade and investment, and build strategic alliances between businesses in Atlantic Canada and companies located in the New England region.
Team Atlantic is an initiative of the Conference of Atlantic Premiers and is being funded by the Canada/Atlantic Provinces COOPERATION Agreement on International Business Development, a pan-Atlantic trade agreement between the federal government represented by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Industry Canada and the four provincial governments.
Representatives of 40 Atlantic Canadian companies, including 10 from Prince Edward Island, are meeting with New England companies to try to generate business opportunities in this region. A number of Island companies have already made sales.
Premier Binns said that the companies who have traveled here from Atlantic Canada are all small and medium-sized businesses with one thing in common — they are here to make deals. And those deals will benefit both regions, he added.
"A healthy economy means profits. Increased profits lead to investment and expansion. Expansion usually means more jobs and a lower unemployment rate," he said. "That all adds up to a healthy and vibrant society and, for government, that's the bottom line. A society that works for everyone and a society where everyone has work."
Delegates for the ACOA-sponsored mission arrived in Boston Sunday night and have spent the past three days drumming up business in Boston, Massachusetts; Burlington, Vermont; and Manchester, New Hampshire. The mission will wrap up in Portland, Maine, on Thursday.