Time to think Canada for business

If you ask a successful entrepreneur in Canada how he would promote doing business in this 10 millions sq. Km country, he wil not probably mention the weather even though jobless rate in Canada declined to 6.8 per cent in the beginning of the last cold season.

The size of the Canadian population could not be either an attractive indicator unless he mentions that 36 millions Canadians generated 2 trillions $ GDP in 2015.

So what makes the Canadian economy continuously efficient and always in the top 10 best countries for business as per FORBES magazine charts.

When NAFTA came into effect on January 1994, few are those who predicted that in 2 shorts decades, this north American trade agreement will allow Canada, USA and Mexico to achieve a combined GDP OF 20.7 trillions USD in 2015.

Predictable rules implemented by NAFTA helped tremendously Canada to unlock it's potential. Actually three fourth of Canadian total goods exports are sold to the other NAFTA partners.

Alberta sand oil encouraged this success story, over the past 20 years, Canada become the united states leading supplier and the 4th for Mexico.

As expected 2017 will be the "this is it" phase for 2 majors events: the British-Europe divorce so called "Brexit" and the inauguration of Donald Trump as a "new apprentice" in the White house on January the 20th.

Canada as G20 Commonwealth country and the largest shared border neighbor of the united states can't be totally immune from this new economic era. Several alternatives are on the table for Canada to offsite any new US trade policy side effect or a shortfalls that " Brexit" could cause to the UK, Canada's third client after United States and China.

One of this option is the freshly signed CETA ( Comprehensive economic and trade agreement ) which is expected to build an Atlantic bridge between Canada and new 500 millions European consumers by reducing almost 98% of tariff lines resulting to a less dependency on the US economy especially if the new president elected Donald Trump will keep his Campaign promises.

CETA will also be paving the way for European commodities, to access the north American zone through a stable and strong gate.

We all witnessed how during the recent economic crisis of 2008. Canada was able to emerge with a lesser evil, owing to a capitalized banking system and a just in time intervention of the financial authority, recovery was fast and efficient despite a 3.3 per cent decrease of the GDP and a resounding deficit registered in 2009, after a decades of surplus.

Commodities coming from Europe with the intention to land on American soil, could take advantage of logistics solutions offered by Canadian proximity. It takes less time to a truck driver to go from Detroit to Buffalo if he choose the Canadian highway.

Economic stability in Canada should be maintained even if the new US administration will withdraw NAFTA in order to impose sanctions against Mexico , in that case Ottawa could easily reactivate it's bilateral trade agreement with America ( FTA ) as a back pocket solution.