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Charles St-Arnaud, economist with Nomura Global Economics, said the United States actually became a drag on Canadian growth coming out of the last recession. Commodity prices and the rising loonie played key factors in this trend shift, he said, noting that while exports in value have been flat since 2000, volumes have been declining.

“If Canada was to diversify its exports, it would have likely benefited from both higher volume and higher prices,” he said from New York. “It would’ve had a bigger overall impact on the Canadian economy.”

Mr. Tal, however, does not see the loonie as the primary driver of change and investment in business growth, noting real imports of machinery and equipment have grown at about the same rate now as when the Canadian dollar was much weaker.

“It’s not a dollar story, but a necessity story,” Mr. Tal said. “The dollar is not just high against the U.S. dollar, but also the yuan.”

Peter Hall, chief economist with Export Development Canada, said it does not really matter what caused the shift, what’s important is that businesses are finally embracing the idea.

“Maybe it’s the catalyst, maybe not. But once they got a taste they did not go back,” he said.

What is apparent is Canada must promote closer export ties with Asia and Latin America, and China and Brazil in particular.

“Trade with China is outgrowing the rest, but it is still much less than it might be,” Mr. Hall said.

Overall diversification in the manufacturing and industrial products sectors has improved by 30% in the past decade. And in 30 of the past 36 quarters, Canadian companies have spent more on business investment growth than on growth in exports to the United States. This works out to an average annual growth rate of more than 4% compared with negligible growth in U.S. exports.