TEXAS, USA — While much of the state’s political focus has been on Mexico in recent years, it’s been business as usual for Canada, Texas’ second-largest trading partner.
While it is an enormous and beneficial partnership, it remains low profile.
And that’s why Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, made a recent stop in Texas, to bring attention to the relationship and help it grow.
“Let’s see what’s working right and let’s double down,” Hillman told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Hillman is the first Canadian woman to be appointed U.S. Ambassador, a position she’s held since 2020.
She met with Gov. Greg Abbott in Austin and took representatives from five Canadian companies with her.
“These five companies alone have invested over $20 Billion in Texas and there’s more coming. And that’s just five companies. We have over 800 companies from Canada investing and operating here in Texas,” said Hillman.
And that’s just a small part of the bigger picture.
Texas imports $37 billion in goods from Canada annually, while it exports $40.3 billion north of the border.
Our largest export, by far, is crude oil.
But Canada is also a major market for our equipment and machinery, minerals and metals, plastics, and chemicals.
“Those exports are actually giving rise to about 900,000 jobs in the state. So, it’s not a small thing. It’s a big thing that makes a big difference for a lot of Texans,” Hillman told us.
And it’s not just Texas.
The economic relationship between the U.S. and Canada is at an all-time high, Hillman says, with more trade between the two countries last year than ever before, and more bilateral investment than in a generation.
An important relationship to reinforce during an election year.