Thank you. I am in Halifax because we are away at our first trade accelerator program on the east coast today.
Our entire focus is on convincing companies that they should look at trade internationally. We also want to get them to diversify markets, because it's uncomfortable being so dependent upon one single market. However, that single market is the closest to us culturally. It's miles across the border. It has similar rule of law. It's the easiest place, in many ways, to trade. It's challenging in other ways because each state is also a place unto itself and the rules and regulations can be different in each one. However, it's still easier than trying to sell into China and trying to sell into Africa and trying to sell into distant markets.
We feel that the government needs to, first of all, ratify this agreement. We don't want to go backwards in terms of tariff-free trade with the U.S. Second, it needs to continue to support, because the federal government through ISED does support the expansion of the trade accelerator program that we are running. We started in Toronto, but now it runs literally across Canada now that we're in Halifax. They have supported that expansion. I think they saw the value in developing capacity in companies to trade and encouraging them to develop the capacity.
The third thing that's really critical is that you have to get them into market. We tell people who come in that if they don't like to travel, they shouldn't get into international trade. You actually have to go to the markets. You have to learn to work with these people. It may seem that the U.S. is similar to us, but if you're trying to sell something into Texas, you're going to find the culture is a bit different there than it is here. You have to go there and learn how to do it. You have to go to trade shows. You have to take advantage of those.
We would encourage the government to do all the things it's doing and to put more emphasis on helping businesses get into those markets. The trade commissioner service has wonderful, amazing people and resources in all sorts of countries around the world. What we need to do is to get more of our companies over to see them and to get their help connecting with opportunities in those markets.
That's where I'd place the emphasis.