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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. PETTIGREW - ADDRESS TOA GROUP OF BUSINESSPEOPLEFROM THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS - SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PIERRE S. PETTIGREW, MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE, TO A GROUP OF BUSINESSPEOPLE FROM THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS SHERBROOKE, Quebec April 26, 2000 It is always a pleasure for me to visit Sherbrooke once again. I am pleased today to address businesspeople from Sherbrooke, Drummondville and Granby through Estrie International, le Club export des Cantons de l'Est and the Corporation de développement international Centre-du-Québec. And as you know, I am not the only one. Every year, many thousands of visitors from all over North America come to admire your countryside, take advantage of your sports facilities and enjoy your hospitality. But -- and this is not so well known -- Sherbrooke and the Eastern Townships area are also very attractive to foreign investors and exporting firms. And it is for that very reason I am here today: in Montreal on April 14, I started out on a Canadian tour to publicize the importance of international trade, and also the services the Canadian government makes available to exporters. After Montreal, I visited Winnipeg and then Calgary and Vancouver. Tomorrow I will be in Mississauga, Ontario, and after that I will go to St. John's, Newfoundland, and finally to Quebec City. The Eastern Townships and International Trade A tour of this kind had to include your region. The Eastern Townships region, because of its strategic geographical location and, above all, through the initiative and innovative outlook of its people, makes a great contribution to Canada's international influence on global markets. You have every reason to be proud of the local firms that are distinguishing themselves in the leading-edge fields of the new economy. I am talking about companies like C-Mac, Asroflex, Médiatrix, Informatrix, Agrimage, Studio Explomédia and Hypershell Industries. Your region is also well served by renowned research institutions such as the Société de microélectronique industrielle de Sherbrooke, the Centre Microtech, the Centre d'applications et de recherches en télédétection, the Groupe de recherche en informatique fondamentale et appliquée, and the Centre de recherche en information. You have also developed remarkable expertise in environmental technology and biomedicine. Your region's energetic approach will be strikingly illustrated in June of this year when the Futurallia business matching forum, which began in France, will result in some 6000 private business meetings here in Sherbrooke between Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises and their counterparts from more than 25 other countries. You have found ways to benefit from the free trade agreement Canada signed with the United States, and you have built strong links with several other Canadian provinces. When we trade internationally, we export products and services and, more and more, we export knowledge. Canada's Strength is its diversity As well, however, we export certain fundamental values, a way of looking at the world and relations with others. I have always felt that our experience of respect for diversity, tolerance and mutual assistance, that we as Canadians have learned right from the beginning of our history, serve us very well when we establish relations with foreign countries, companies and business firms. This region can be proud of its history. For many generations, Francophones and Anglophones have worked together to build a better world for themselves, their families and their entire community. And that is mostly what globalization is all about: people of different cultures and origins co-operating and creating new partnerships in order to succeed in an economy marked by ever more intense global competition. And in that regard the people of the Eastern Townships started along the road of globalization ahead of many other regions and even ahead of many countries. RNG, Apaulo, Estrie International And you are tasting success! One of the leading success stories in this region of Quebec is the case of RNG. RNG has just secured contracts worth $15.4 million in the United States and Mexico, which will enable it to reopen its Sherbrooke plant and create more than 150 jobs right here in the region and another 50 jobs over the next two months. RNG is a dynamic Canadian company with eight manufacturing plants in Canada and 34 service and distribution centres in Canada and the United States. This success directly results from the efficiency of the common market between the Canadian provinces, which also enables us to succeed on foreign markets. With assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, RNG is also bidding for contracts potentially worth more than $100 million in all. I sincerely hope that this success will provide food for thought for anyone tempted to agree with those who are proposing to throw up new barriers between Quebec and the other members of the Canadian economic union, and between Quebec and the international community. These business leaders and employees of RNG have generated economic spinoff for your region and represent yet one more example of how Canadian federalism is also an instrument of economic development. I will be visiting Les Pliages Apaulo, which exports furniture components to the United States and Europe. Although both Les Pliages Apaulo and Bois Ouvrés Waterville are family businesses, their influence extends well beyond this region and Canada's borders. I would like to offer my congratulations to the president of these two companies, Ms. Monique Compagna, who is with us here today. Ms. Compagna is also president of Estrie International 2007, which promotes the development of businesses by providing a single window for exporting, mainly for small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 300 employees. Importance of International Trade Since my appointment as Minister for International Trade in August last year, I have travelled a great deal to help open up new markets for Canadian business. Everywhere I went, I found that our products and services have an excellent reputation. Canadian businesspeople are recognized as dynamic, honest and innovative. And in recent years, the Government of Canada, specifically through the Team Canada missions, has become recognized on every continent as a highly effective partner of our private sector. This is well known in every country, except possibly one: Canada itself! We could say that Canadians trade internationally without even knowing it. For example, few Canadians know that: • seven years ago, approximately 30 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) was associated with international trade -- already a very high percentage; today, it is 43 percent -- almost half of what we produce; • by comparison, the United States exports only 11 percent of its GDP -- only a quarter of what Canada exports, in relative terms; • as for Japan, it exports only 15 percent of its GDP -- a performance only one-third as good as ours, in relative terms. About one third of all jobs in Canada depend on international trade. Half of the 162 000 jobs created in Quebec over the last two years were the result of growth in our exports. Last year, Canada's sales abroad increased by approximately 10 percent, representing almost half of our economic growth. And Export Development Corporation announced last week that it was forecasting our exports to rise by 9 percent this year. Exports from Quebec should grow by 8 percent. So international trade is a major driving force of our economy, and when Canadian firms win new contracts abroad, jobs are created here at home. And it is not only the big multinational companies that are responsible for these impressive results. In fact 70 percent of Canadian exporting firms have total sales of less than one million dollars. And contrary to the consistent belief in some quarters, Canada does not export mainly raw materials and natural resources. For in reality, primary products represent only 35 percent of our foreign sales. As we become a knowledge-based economy, we are increasingly exporting services and skills. Canadian firms are global leaders in telecommunications, aerospace, computer software, environmental technology and many other sectors of the new economy. And Quebec companies, in particular, are demonstrating remarkable dynamism in exploring and developing new foreign markets. We can be proud of what we are achieving in the world. But this is certainly not the time to rest on our laurels. Although the global economy is opening up new opportunities, it is also generating fierce competition. And in the new economy characterized by groupings of countries and companies, it is becoming vital to form new alliances and new partnerships. Services Available The Government of Canada can be a very valuable partner for business firms seeking to establish themselves at the global level. While we cannot make business decisions or carry out business strategies that might assure your success, we can open doors for you around the globe. I know that many of you are interested, for example, in the new markets opening up in Western Europe. And you have every reason to be: • After the United States, Europe is the second largest market for Canadian firms. More than 40 percent of new exports elsewhere than to the United States go to Europe; • The European Union, which currently consists of 15 countries and could total as many as 30 by 2010, opens access to a population of 370 million and generates a Gross National Product of US$8.5 trillion; • in 1998 trade between Canada and Europe represented $52.8 billion, an increase of 62 percent since 1993; • between 1993 and 1998, our exports to Europe rose from $14 billion to $19 billion--an increase of 36 percent; and • six of Canada's 10 largest export markets are in Europe. Among the services we provide to exporters and investors, our Trade Commissioner Service, which currently has 530 highly qualified employees in 130 foreign missions, is a priceless resource for Canadian firms that want to export. Their contribution is recognized both by the largest companies and by small and medium-sized enterprises. The services available to you include the following: • evaluation of your target market's potential; • list of key contacts; • information on local business firms; • practical advice to help you organize your visit to your target market; • reports on the latest relevant developments; and • suggestions to help you resolve trade-related problems. I strongly encourage you to use these services when you are exploring foreign markets. In 1999, the Department conducted a survey of more than 2000 clients (mainly small and medium-sized enterprises) of the Trade Commissioner Service, to measure their level of satisfaction and ensure that our services were meeting the needs of business firms and our partners. The vast majority of these clients -- more than 80 percent -- said they were satisfied with the services delivered by our offices abroad, and 89 percent of them said that they would recommend our service to an associate. And our Quebec clients were a little more satisfied with our services than clients in other Canadian provinces, and a slightly higher percentage said they would recommend them. A number of respondents said that they would like us to have even more trade officers in the field. So we have deployed 21 additional officers abroad during the last three years and we are going to hire at least another 10 or so by next year. But you also told us where we could make improvements. Among other things, we need to improve our knowledge of local markets, in order to provide you with even more relevant intelligence to help you make better decisions. You also told us that our officers abroad should know more about your areas of activity in Canada. We are taking the necessary action to better meet your expectations. With me here today are Alan Minz, who is normally stationed in London, John McNab, who represents us in Paris, Norbert Kalisch in Berlin, Louis Poisson in Madrid and Khawar Nasim in Rome. I am also happy to visit you in the company of a Sherbrooke native, Sylvain Fabi, who has already been stationed in Moscow and now holds the position of Deputy Director with our Trade Commissioner Service in Ottawa. I would invite you to meet with these experts and consult them. Prime Minister Chrétien has also developed the Team Canada concept, involving trade missions abroad which have enabled Canadian companies to sign agreements and contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. On average, Quebec firms make up a quarter of these delegations, and I hope that many of you will take advantage of them in future. These excursions have also benefited our institutions, such as the Université de Sherbrooke, which concluded nine agreements during the 1998 Team Canada mission to Latin America, enabling it to offer its master's and doctoral level programs in universities in Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. I have also announced that I will lead a number of foreign trade missions over the next two years, and I invite you to participate in them. The first mission will travel to Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, from May 30 to June 2 this year. The destination of the second will be Russia, and of the third, Central Europe, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. I am also planning to visit Algeria, Morocco and Spain, followed by the Andes region and, last, the Middle East. Several other government institutions are specifically dedicated to developing our exports. They include Export Development Corporation, which lends funds to foreign companies to enable them to purchase Canadian products and services. In this way, we assume a portion of the risk our business firms run by doing business abroad. The Canadian Commercial Corporation is another efficient agency that can help your business to secure contracts by guaranteeing their execution on behalf of the Government of Canada. These agreements are concluded to benefit foreign purchasers that are not well acquainted with your firm or its capacities. You can also use the services of the International Business Opportunities Centre, which matches Canadian firms with business opportunities abroad. We offer a host of services to exporters, including market studies and information on financing facilities, trade fairs and export rules and regulations. You can get details of future trade missions and the many services the Government of Canada makes available to exporters by visiting our Web site at <a href="www.infoexport.gc.ca.">www.infoexport.gc.ca</a>. Your region has every possible reason to look forward to the future with confidence. I came here today to tell you, quite simply, that you can count on me and you can count on the Government of Canada to help you. Thank you. </body> </html>

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