Taking action to bolster trade in Canada is a good idea even if we weren’t going through the ever-changing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. That, from the CEO of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, Prabha Ramaswamy, after all of Canada’s provincial chambers joined together to set out four recommendations for the provincial and federal governments.

She says the tariff threats have been a wakeup call for Canada. “What we need to do is to focus on our own economic sovereignty. We need to strengthen our domestic economy first while we continue to strengthen the trading relationship with the United States.”  The first of the four recommendations is to get rid of the interprovincial trade barriers, because it makes everything more complex. Ramaswamy says, “Sometimes it’s easier for us to export to another country than to trade within Canada.”

The chambers are asking for the provinces to have mutual recognition agreements to rectify these trade barriers. She notes that tearing down these barriers, according to previous chamber analysis, could add anywhere between 150 billion to $200 billion to the economy.

The second recommendation is for all provinces to have a unified commitment to a National Energy Corridor to facilitate the movement of all our energy options for both internal and international opportunities.

Third is for governments to support domestic suppliers whenever possible and the fourth is for the federal government to accelerate the renewal of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement to ensure stability for businesses.