I have made several presentations recently where I have suggested that these international trade agreements for the most part don’t mean much for New Brunswick. The truth is that other than a handful of firms in forest products and refined oil, we don’t export much internationally. In fact, if you strip out refined oil, we export far more, by value, to other provinces. The following chart shows the value of exports from New Brunswick by jurisdiction (excluding the US). The Canadian data is from 2015 and includes services (we don’t export a lot of services internationally).
The value of NB exports to Manitoba are higher than all the countries in the EU combined. I realize it is fun to go to France, visit the Eiffel Tour and bring home good wine but maybe we would be better served organizing trade missions to Manitoba. You could pick up perogies and kubasa sausage.
