By Gary Joiner
TFB Radio Network Manager

Trade and investment between Canada and the United States, two-way, is worth $2 billion a day.

Sara Wilshaw, consul general of Canada based in Dallas, said the Canada-U.S. trade relationship is one of the biggest in the world. Wilshaw said trade with the South Central U.S., and with Texas in particular, is worth $45 billion.

“This is a long-standing relationship. And it’s been good for both of us over many, many decades, in fact, centuries of trade going back and forth between Canada and the United States. What we’re seeing, though, and what we’ve seen in the last several decades, is a much deeper integration, in terms of our systems,” Wilshaw told the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network. “Products and intermediary products, inputs that go into the products that we each produce, are coming from each other’s countries. In fact, some products cross the border many times before they become something that a consumer would buy. That deep integration speaks to the relationship, and it’s something that we want to encourage and support.”

Wilshaw said the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is certainly a current topic of discussion. The Trump administration is seeking to renegotiate the 1994 agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

“We’re certainly open to having a discussion about how that can be improved, what can be done better,” she said.

While both the U.S. and Canada have new national leaders and administrations, Wilshaw said business and people relationships between the two countries continue, as they have before.

“At the end of the day, the trade investment and the people-to-people ties and the relationships that we have built across the broad spectrum of our economy and social sort of relationship, as well, that hasn’t changed,” she said.

Wilshaw said the Canadian office in Dallas works within a five-state territory that includes Texas.

The TFB Radio Network program featuring Wilshaw’s comments can be heard here.