Canada’s next great export might just be its excellent insurance products.
Although Canada has a $46-billion trade deficit with China (having imported $65.6 billion from China in 2015 and exporting only $19.7 billion), the former remains an important source of products and services to the latter.
“Even though there is a trade deficit, if we look at particular goods, we are an important supplier to them,” said Asia-Pacific Foundation vice president of research and programs Eva Busza.
While Canada’s current top exports to China include wood pulp, oilseeds, fruits and grains, and the like, Busza believes that future trade might be more focused on areas of growth such as technology, health care, and even insurance products.
“Who has good insurance products? Canada does,” Busza told
Global News. “We’re well-known for our health system, our aged care, and China has a huge aging population. We’re not the only ones who can provide this, but that’s why it’s important for us to be developing these relations, so that we can actually compete instead of being shut out of those new sectors.”
Busza also suggested that developing a formal trade agreement with China would not only open a new market to Canada’s insurers, but give the former a launching pad from which to strike a similar deal with the U.S.
“It’s a testing ground,” added Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia director and Asia-Pacific Foundation senior fellow Yves Tiberghien. “Usually, when you do an FTA [free trade agreement] it’s a catalyst for closer relations across the board, it would be a catalyst for more people meeting each other.”
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