How New Brunswick’s Tariff Response Reinforces the Need for Export Readiness and Diversification
When the United States recently imposed tariffs — including 25% on most Canadian exports and 10% on energy products — the impact rippled quickly through export-intensive regions like New Brunswick, where roughly 92% of the province’s goods have historically headed south of the border.
This moment has become a strategic inflection point for New Brunswick companies — and Canadian exporters more broadly — underscoring exactly why export readiness and diversification are critical.
Immediate Support for Businesses Facing Tariff Pressures
To help local businesses weather tariff-driven disruption, the New Brunswick government — through its economic development agency, Opportunities NB — has rolled out a suite of targeted supports:
Working capital loans of up to $5 million to help exporters manage cash flow, maintain operations, and cushion tariff impacts.
A new $40 million competitiveness and growth program designed to strengthen long-term sustainability for large export-intensive firms.
Strategic assistance, leveraging an existing $30 million budget, aimed at contingency planning, market diversification, productivity improvements and export strategy support.
Sector-specific support such as $4 million to bolster the New Brunswick Fisheries Fund.
Business Navigators available to help companies understand tariff effects, connect with programs, and plan next steps.
Together, these efforts are designed to boost resilience, protect jobs, and help exporters adapt — not only to immediate tariff challenges but also to evolving global trade realities.
From Support to Strategy: Why Export Readiness Matters Now
While financial relief and planning assistance are critical in the short term, what this tariff shock really reveals is a broader business truth:
Export readiness — the ability of a company to assess, plan and execute foreign market entry — is not just about growth, it’s about survival in an unpredictable global trade environment.
For far too many Canadian companies, dependency on one market — especially one as dominant as the U.S. — becomes an unspoken vulnerability. New Brunswick’s experience amplifies this: with almost all exports heading into a single economy, external policy changes quickly become local shocks.
Export readiness involves several key capabilities:
Market research and strategy development
Regulatory and compliance planning
Supply chain flexibility
Foreign market entry and positioning
Financial and operational resilience planning
When businesses lack these elements, they are less able to respond to shocks like tariffs or sudden policy shifts.
Diversification: The Next Step and the Competitive Advantage
Diversification isn’t just about selling to more countries. It’s about:
Reducing reliance on a single market’s economic cycle
Understanding global demand drivers and regulatory environments
Repositioning products and services to match new market needs
Harnessing trade agreements and preferential access (e.g., European, Asian, or Latin American markets)
New Brunswick’s strategic assistance programs explicitly include funding for diversification planning and professional services such as market research and trade compliance consulting. This is an acknowledgment that long-term resilience must go beyond immediate survival and into competitive expansion.
Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity
Tariffs are disruptive. But they also act as a catalyst for change — a prompt for companies to ask:
How dependent are we on one market’s policies?
What would happen if those policies changed overnight?
Are we prepared to pivot into new markets?
Do we have the internal capabilities to execute an export diversification strategy?
This is where structured export readiness assessments become invaluable. By understanding where an organization stands — in terms of operational capacity, market intelligence, competitiveness and compliance readiness — leaders can turn external challenges into strategic momentum.
New Brunswick’s business support ecosystem is giving companies tools to build resilience today. The strategic next step is leveraging that support to build capacity for tomorrow’s global opportunities.