I think francophone communities are absolutely prepared to expand into new spaces and are engaged in doing this already. This is one of their priorities. Sometimes it's referred to as
…expanding the francophone community…
and not only in a cultural way, but in an economic way.
Openness towards international markets is obviously an advantage to francophone minority communities and is something they can leverage. For specific trade deals, it depends. French is often seen as a second language internationally, regardless of the what first language of either party is. They often share French as a common language. Also, we know that growing markets often have French as a language of business, so this is certainly an opportunity.
One thing that we did want to mention is the difference between a basic language acquisition and then the confidence to interact actively within a language community that isn't your own. Learning basic French doesn't necessarily mean that an anglophone will then engage actively with the francophone economy if there isn't an active offer to engage, but Canadian Youth for French recognizes through most of its partnerships that there is an openness from francophone minority communities to this reality.