Resource: Industry, Science, and Technology Canada (ISTC) publishes Industry Profiles (free; 613-954-4500; fax, 613-954-4499), which evaluates the global competitiveness of Canada's 130 top industries. ISTC also has a Market Intelligence Service (613-954-4970; fax, 613-954-2340) for product-specific information.
The Export Opportunity Hotline (800-243-7232) fields basic questions at no charge. It also sells publications, reports, and other services (including trade leads and agent searches).
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Trade Agreements
Both the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the United States and Canada, enacted January 1, 1989, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), now headed for ratification by the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican governments, have had their share of criticism. Still, small companies with a Canadian presence can clearly benefit from some of their provisions.
Perhaps that's most evident with tariffs that have been all but eliminated under the FTA. For $18-million H. O. Trerice -- an Oak Park, Mich., industrial temperature-and control-valves manufacturer -- the benefits have been so great that the product line produced in its Windsor, Ontario, plant is now exported back to the United States, says export manager Valerie Magnuson. "The few tariffs that remain have been reduced to 2.4% from 8% to 10% and will disappear by 1998. Sales of these imports from Canada have helped lower our overhead over the past two years."
Resource: For a free 38-page briefing on the effects and opportunities of NAFTA, write to Richard Steinberg, Morrison & Foerster/NAFTA Briefing, 345 California St., San Francisco, CA 94104.
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Albert Warson is a Toronto-based writer specializing in international business.
CANADA AND ITS PROVINCES
Canadian Statistics
Population: 27.3 million, 50.7% female. By province: Alberta, 2.5 million; British Columbia, 3.3 million; Manitoba, 1.1 million; New Brunswick, 724,000; Newfoundland, 568,000; Northwest Territories, 52,000; Nova Scotia, 900,000; Ontario, 10.1 million; Prince Edward Island, 130,000; Quebec, 6.9 million; Saskatchewan, 989,000; Yukon, 27,000
Area: 3.9 million square miles (world's largest country); about 35% is covered by mainly coniferous forests
Official languages: English and French; in Quebec, it's French by law
Organization: 10 provinces; 2 territories
Political system: Federal parliament, with a house of commons elected every five years (the next federal election is this year) and a senate appointed by the prime minister. Federal capital is Ottawa. Provincial governments are responsible to electorates in their own jurisdictions
Most populated metropolitan areas: Toronto, Ontario (3.9 million); Montreal, Quebec (3.1 million); and Vancouver, British Columbia (1.6 million)
Education: About half of Canada's 13.6 million workers are high school graduates; a quarter have university or community-college degrees
Unemployment: Roughly 11.8% of the work force (at the end of 1992)
Gross domestic product*: Estimated $612.25 billion in 1992, compared with $7.2 trillion in the United States; GDP per capita in Canada is $22,629, compared with $22,487 in the United States
Business activity: More than 77% of manufacturing activity and financial institutions and other service industries are concentrated in Ontario and Quebec
Average industrial weekly wages*: Expected to rise from $431 this year to $446 in 1994; 31% of labor force is unionized, compared with 18% in the United States. Canadians earn more in the textile industry ($22,278 a year) and petrochemicals ($39,974 a year) than U.S. workers, but less in the automotive ($34,286) and computer ($28,361) industries. Production workers are paid an average of $14.72 an hour, as are their U.S. counterparts
Consumer expenditures*: Expected to increase from $272.2 billion this year to $280.6 billion in 1994
*All figures in U.S. dollars based on $0.79 U.S. to $1.00 Canadian.
THE HOTTEST EXPORTS TO CANADA*
The $96.5 billion in U.S. goods and services exported to Canada in 1992 is predicted to grow by an average of 2% this year and in 1994. Consider these markets tapped as among the hottest growth industries in 1993 and 1994:
Pollution control and equipment
Projected growth, 1993-1994: 10% to 12%
Imports from the U.S., 1992: $1.41 billion
Computer software and services
Projected growth, 1993-1994: 9%
Imports from the U.S., 1992: $1.42 billion
Computers and peripherals
Projected growth, 1993-1994: 8%
Imports from the U.S., 1992: $2.10 billion
Automotive parts and service equipment
Projected growth, 1993-1994: 5% to 7%
Imports from the U.S., 1992: $1.49 billion
Source: "Country Marketing Plan," Office of Canada, U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (202-482-3101). n
