As markets continue to plummet around the world, along with commodity prices, in the wake of new tariffs announced earlier this week by U.S. President Donald Trump, Saskatchewan business leaders are being urged to rethink their heavy reliance on the American market and start seriously exploring new opportunities abroad.
Golden West Business Commentator Paul Martin says the recent announcement of widespread U.S. tariffs—and the resulting market turmoil—should be a wake-up call for small and medium-sized businesses across the province.
“One of the things that's flowing from all of this conversation is... we better start diversifying our customer list a little bit,” Martin said. “It’s always been easy to deal with the U.S. But if you ever lose access to that market, it's really painful. And that's what we're starting to see now.”
While larger corporations are often equipped to pursue international sales, Martin emphasized that this is an inflection point for smaller operations, many of whom have never needed to look beyond the American border for customers. He’s seeing growing interest from Saskatchewan entrepreneurs who are starting to ask serious questions about expanding their reach to Europe, Asia, Central America, or Australia.
“This is the call that says you should probably think about, for the first time likely in your life, going on a trade mission or finding a customer in Europe or in Asia,” Martin said. “We’ve been blessed by being parked next to the biggest market in the world. Now we might have to rethink that.”
Martin pointed to recent efforts by Saskatchewan’s government, including international trade offices and missions abroad, as valuable resources that local businesses can tap into. He mentioned the Premier’s recent trip to Germany and the province’s growing global footprint as signs that there is real momentum toward developing alternate markets.
“Organizations like your local chamber (of commerce) could help facilitate this,” he said. “You don't need more than a half dozen people to go on a trade mission and say, ‘Yeah, it's a viable opportunity for me to open a new market in, say, Germany.’”
At the core of Martin’s message is the importance of managing risk through diversification. He shared the story of one Saskatchewan business that caps revenue from any single customer at 18 percent of its total income—a practice designed to protect against over-dependence.
“That was something that caught a lot of people's attention,” Martin said. “They looked at their own portfolios and said, maybe we need to think about that.”
The lesson is especially clear when looking at Western Canada’s oil industry, which has long been constrained by a lack of pipeline access to global buyers, leaving the U.S. Midwest as its main customer.
“We're kind of a captive market,” Martin said. “Maybe now the page has turned on that, and we’ll have a better opportunity to create those alternate markets.”
As uncertainty continues to swirl in global politics and trade, Martin believes Saskatchewan businesses can no longer afford to wait. The time to act, he says, is now.
“This is a conversation point that people around here need to start to think about a little bit: What can I do to be proactive to market my product beyond the borders of, say, Saskatchewan—or even North America?”