International Trade - Sounding Board
View from Abroad - Louise Leger
How is Florida as a place to do business?
CANADA
Louise Leger
Consul General, Miami
Canada exports over $4 billion to Florida. Florida exports about $3.6 billion to us. We are owners of 200 companies in this state. That’s direct jobs of 25,684. Not too many people know how important the relationship is to the state of Florida. We have approximately half a million homeowners in Florida. Our real estate portfolio in the state of Florida is approximately $50 billion. In 2011, 39% of foreign sales were to Canadians. Sometimes it’s difficult to convince small- and medium-sized companies to locate beyond the U.S. We recommend they set up shop here. We’ve become very aggressive in promoting south Florida to small and medium-sized companies. You have all the services, logistics, language services to help, the expertise to increase their markets to Latin America and the Caribbean.”
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