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If you look at a list of Canada's top trading partners, France is not very high on the list.

About three-quarters of the dollar value of Canadian merchandise exports went to the United States last year, followed by China at 4.3 percent and the United Kingdom at 3.2 percent.

France was in 10th place, ranking behind Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India, Germany, and Belgium.

But since December, we've seen Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bullied by Donald Trump and humiliated by the Chinese government on the trade front.

Trudeau has also been scorned by elements within the government of India, who likely played a hand in making his February trip to that country a public-relations disaster.

British prime minister Theresa May and her most bigoted Brexit fans would probably prefer Canada to be under the rule of the Conservatives.

And the election of leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico creates more uncertainty for the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trudeau got along famously with Obrador's predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto. He was a multilateral free trader, like Trudeau, whose ideological disposition differs markedly from that of Obrador.

Trudeau was also close to Barack Obama but the relationship with Trump appears to have gone off the rails.

So that leaves French president Emmanuel Macron as perhaps Trudeau's, and Canada's, best friend in the world.

They are both young world leaders and multilateral free traders. Both are fluently bilingual in French and English. Trudeau was previously a teacher, as was Macron's wife Brigitte.

Macron, like Trudeau, made major promises around addressing climate change and both are big supporters of more urban rapid-transit projects.

So it's easy to see how they could get along so well at international gatherings.

They each know what it's like dealing with the mercurial Trump, who behaves like a boorish and unwanted dinner guest at G7 and NATO gatherings.

This year, it's Trudeau's problem because Canada has the presidency of the G7. Next year, France will hold the G7 presidency.

This friendship between Trudeau and Macron might explain why Canada has committed 250 peacekeeping troops to a dangerous mission in Mali, a former French colony in West Africa.

A dozen French soldiers have lost lives as the country has led the fight against Islamic rebels in the northern part of the country.

Kareen Rispal was appointed last year as France's ambassador to Canada.

CETA opens up more opportunities for trade

Earlier this year, France's ambassador to Canada, Kareen Rispal, visited the Georgia Straight office during a trip to Vancouver.

Prior to her appointment last year, she was director of the Americas and the Caribbean in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In this role, she would join Macron, then the minister overseeing the economy, when he met foreign leaders from the western hemisphere who were visiting Paris.

From 2011 to 2014, Rispal was director of sustainable development and public affairs with the Lafarge Group. It's a French producer of cement, construction aggregates, and concrete with a plant in Richmond, B.C.

As for the Macron-Trudeau relationship, Rispal said they get along very well. She noted that they both value the United Nations and its various organizations.

"I think they share the same openness and this fight against protectionism," she noted. "I think they share the same vision of the world."

There are also more trading opportunities possible between Canada and France as a result of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which went into effect last September.

Rispal pointed out that this will lead to the elimination of 98 percent of tariffs.

To cite some examples, she said that mustard previously had a nine percent tariff, chocolate was at six percent, and textiles were up to 18 percent.

During her visit to Vancouver, she stopped by Zodiac Hurricane Technologies in Delta, which manufactures boats for military and professional organizations. The international firm, Zodiac Nautic, is based in France.

"It's typically the kind of company that will really take advantage of the CETA because it becomes much more competitive," the ambassador noted.

The interview took place before Canada imposed tariffs on boats imports from the U.S., which will further enhance Zodiac's business prospects.

France is a world leader in environmental management. According to Rispal, CETA creates opportunities in these areas.

"We have excellent savoir faire in different fields like waste management, like electric vehicles, like renewable energies and green infrastructure," she said.

The French government-owned railway, SNCF, is a 70 percent shareholder in Keolis, which is France's largest passenger-transportation group. The other partner in Keolis is the Quebec public-pension giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

Keolis Canada is active in bus transportation, but it's not out of the question that one day, it could win a contract to operate one or more rapid-transit lines in Metro Vancouver.

Ambassador Rispal recently visited Vancouver-based Hootsuite, which has set up an office with 35 employees in Paris.

Canadians are welcome in France

At the same time, Rispal said that Canadian companies are finding it easier to set up operations in France.

This stands in contrast to the growing difficulties faced by Canadians who want to do business in the United States. America has even imposed lifetime travel bans on Canadians who invest in legal cannabis enterprises.

In France, Macron is reforming labour laws to encourage investment.

Nowadays, Rispal said, there isn't a rigid rule that workers will only be on the job for 35 hours per week: companies can make different arrangements under a more decentralized decision-making process.

"Yesterday, I was visiting Hootsuite," she revealed. "They opened an office in Paris with 35 people."

Brexit is another reason why Canadian companies are going to France.

That's because having operations in the United Kingdom may not provide as easy access in the future to Europe, which has a population of nearly 450 million (not counting the U.K.).

That's not to say there aren't some obstacles in Canada-France relations.

In 2016 the European Union ambassador and Ottawa-based diplomats representing the United States and five other countries signed a joint letter to Premier Christy Clark objecting to rules around wine sales in grocery stores.

Since then, the United States and Australia have filed complaints against Canada to the World Trade Organization over B.C. only allowing domestic wine on grocery store shelves.

Rispal said that the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces sometimes create difficulties for French companies, particularly with regard to liquor.

"Every province is a new market," she said. "So it's very difficult to say 'I'm going to Canada.' You will go to Quebec. You will go to British Columbia.

"It's true that we are concerned about some of your regulations about wines," Rispal continued. "I don't know how CETA will ease everything. Maybe it's going to be easier"

She said that tourism has rebounded dramatically in France, with 89 million people visiting her country last year. Of those, about one million were from Canada.

Rispal hopes that in the future, more Canadian young people will consider studying in France.

"We have 900 programs in English--educational programs within our universities," she said. "Even if you don't speak French, you can study in an English program and then when you feel more comfortable with French, you can switch to the French system."

Moreover, these educational programs are spread across the county in such cities as Lille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice, and Grenoble.

And with Paris being a central European transportation hub, it makes it very easy for students to travel to other European capitals, not to mention other cities in France.

"You can go from Paris to Marseille in two hours," Rispal noted.