Wheat from the Chaff Blog

British Columbia’s long standing push to diversify its trade, and move away from a reliance on exports to America, appears to be gathering steam. Of course, as we found out in the late 1990’s, a growing dependence on emerging industrialized countries – particularly when we’re mostly selling raw resources – may also be perilous:

… Almost 12 per cent of B.C.’s exports went to BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] last year. That outpaces all the other provinces, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba the closest contenders at 11 per cent and eight per cent, respectively.

“British Columbia has got a bit of a jump start, if you will, on some of the other provinces,” [Warren] Lovely said.

“I think you’ll continue to see the country as a whole and British Columbia, perhaps in particular, orientate itself towards the part of the world where demand is the strongest — and that’s across the Pacific.”

The other side of B.C.’s export rainbow is a reduced reliance on the troubled U.S. economy. With 50 per cent of its 2009 exports headed to the U.S., B.C. has the country’s lightest reliance on the U.S. as a trading partner.

Runners-up in the U.S. lite trade category are, again, Saskatchewan at 61 per cent and Manitoba at 67 per cent. Nationally, 75 per cent of exports flow to the U.S….

Lovely cites B.C.’s considerable progress in weaning itself off the U.S. In 2001, almost 70 per cent of the province’s trade headed to the U.S., he said.…