Those are very interesting questions. We hosted an event at Canada House today, where Premier Gallant spoke, and really, I can just lift his comments.
I think what you're going to see first on the trade side is that Atlantic Canada is going to be a very major beneficiary. I think from Quebec eastwards on the trade front in particular.... I think all of Canada will benefit with the increase in farm trade and those types of things, but you have a natural export outlet and a relationship with the European Union. It will be in forestry, mining and minerals, fish and seafood, possibly petrochemicals, and industrial goods. There are a wide range of activities there.
With regard to services, for instance, in maritime transportation, the port of Saint John could see an increase in traffic, as would the port of Halifax and the port of Montreal. For professional services, it's across the board, wherever the professional services are operating, whether it be legal or consulting and those types of things. In such a comprehensive agreement, it's a negative list, in that everything is captured unless otherwise omitted. Wherever those services exist in New Brunswick and where there is a desire to sell those services outside of New Brunswick, it could be in the European Union. There will be opportunities.
With regard to investment, I think the real thing about investment is that it used to be that you invested and then it stimulated trade. What may be new now is that trade sort of follows investment. That's the nature of the game nowadays. For instance, let's say you're a wind turbine manufacturer. You create what you call a centre of excellence. You build your little supply chains into that location. You put that wind turbine manufacturing plant in a place where you feel that you have the greatest global export opportunity, the greatest opportunity to service as many people as possible in as large a market as possible.
Why free trade and investment facilitate that is the investment point: it protects the investment in the market. The elimination of tariffs, even if they are relatively small, makes it easier for the supply chains to develop all the inputs that will go into the manufacturing and assembly of the product. Then you have the duty-free access to be able to export that product to all the places with which you have free trade.
Any area where that dynamic could come into play could be advantageous for New Brunswick. It's very difficult to speculate, because economies are so complex, but I think the greatest opportunities would be with regard to the movement of goods eastward, going out through the ports of New Brunswick, probably from the resources and agricultural sector. I think we're going to see a large trade flow. Then there are the services that will really facilitate that, including customs, brokering, transportation, and the professional services that go around that, such as accounting and legal services and things like that.
Of course, it could be much broader than that, but that gives you an idea of how many different factors there are in these types of considerations.
