News & Events

Minister Breen leads 3-day Enterprise Ireland Trade Visit to Toronto and New York

The visit focuses on further strengthening Ireland’s strong relationship as a trading partner with Canada and the USA, with client companies from the construction, consumer retail and technology sectors

Pat Breen T.D Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU, Digital Single Market and Data Protection commences a 3-day Enterprise Ireland trade visit to Toronto and New York today (21st May 2019).The trade visit will focus on key growth opportunities and collaboration with both North American markets across construction, technology and consumer retail. Through this, Enterprise Ireland hopes to help American and Canadian businesses improve their competitiveness by introducing them to an innovative and experienced Irish supply base. In the past two years Enterprise Ireland-supported companies opened 119 new offices in the U.S. and 400 Enterprise Ireland clients have done business in the Canadian market. During the visit the Minister will also participate in a number of IDA Ireland engagements.

Minister Breen will meet and engage with Senior Executives from the construction industry in Toronto and New York to highlight the capability of Irish construction products, services and technology companies, including high performance buildings, Smart Cities, and environmentally superior construction products.The visit coincides with a residential and commercial property construction boom in Toronto and Vancouver, which has afforded opportunities to Enterprise Ireland clients in glazing, cladding, façade systems and other sub-contracting areas, particularly with large Canadian general contractors.

Speaking on the first day of the trade visit in Toronto, Minister Breen said; “The USA and Canada are both key export markets for Ireland; Enterprise Ireland supported clients exported €340.6M to Canada in 2017 and 522 Irish owned companies currently export to the USA. The focus of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, through Enterprise Ireland, is to support more of these companies, particularly those which are Brexit exposed, to achieve further market diversification and grow their international exports. Over the course of this trade visit, I look forward to engaging with key decision makers in the construction, technology and consumer retail sectors to promote Ireland as a source of world-class products and services.”

The visit also aims to promote the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, highlighting the increasing trade and opportunities in the consumer retail sector, demonstrating how CETA has had a positive impact on consumer goods being exported from Ireland into Canada. Since the introduction of CETA exports from Ireland to Canada have grown significantly from €1.091 billion in 2017 to over €1.3 billion in 2018.

Neil Cooney, Country Manager Canada, Enterprise Ireland said: “Business links between Ireland and Canada are deep and extensive - outside of Europe, the US and China, Canada is our largest indigenous export market. More than 400 Enterprise Ireland clients are doing business in the Canadian market with over 6,000 people in Canada employed by Enterprise Ireland clients, highlighting the strength of our economic relationship. We are delighted that Minister Breen is leading the Trade Visit this week where he will be engaging with key decision makers in the region and promoting the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada. The trade visit will demonstrate Irish capabilities across a range of sectors including fintech, ICT, construction and consumer, with a focus on deepening mutually beneficial collaboration with our Canadian partners.”

 

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For further information, please contact:

Therese Cullen, Enterprise Ireland

Tel: 01-7272770