The Fedtrade® podcast recently interviewed Michel Belval, President of the Quebec Chapter of The American Chamber of Commerce in Canada (AmCham Quebec), as part of our SelectUSA Investment Summit Spotlight series. With seven chapters located across Canada, AmCham Canada is committed to promoting trade opportunities, advancing economic growth, and facilitating the mobility of people, goods, and services between Canada and the United States, the longest undefended border in the world. AmCham Canada is a proud affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest international global business organization. AmCham Quebec is based in Montreal, the province’s commercial hub. Members of AmCham Quebec will be attending the 2025 SelectUSA Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland, from May 11-14, 2025.
Learn more about AmCham Quebec on their website or follow them on LinkedIn. Connect with Michel on LinkedIn.
Key takeaways
- AmCham Quebec not only helps Canadian businesses enter the U.S. market but also American companies going to Quebec.
- Professional service partners on both the U.S. and Canada sides are crucial for helping businesses understand the laws and rules.
- Intellectual property protection is important for companies entering the U.S. and AmCham Quebec provides the knowledge and resources necessary.
- Building strong Canada-U.S. relations is essential for economic growth.
Hello and welcome to the Fedtrade® podcast. I’m James Hastings of Rothwell Figg. Joining us on the podcast today is Michel Belval, President of the Quebec Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada. Michel will be discussing the benefits of membership in AmCham Quebec, and how it promotes American-Canadian trade and investment. Michel, welcome to Fedtrade®.
Thank you for having me.
Please briefly describe AmCham Quebec and its mission.
At AmCham Quebec, we help Canadian businesses, especially ones in the province of Quebec, to go to the United States and we promote the United States and Quebec. We also help businesses from the United States to come to Quebec. So we support different businesses and different governors or commercial missions coming from the United States to Quebec. And we also do the same thing with Quebec delegations that go and visit the United States to find new partners or commercial opportunities. We work both ways.
With regard to Canadian companies or entities that are seeking to do business in the United States, are there specific sectors that you deal with primarily?
Well, we work in all sectors. It could be with critical material, it could be with the semiconductor industry. And also we need to not forget that a big percentage of commercial relations between the U.S. and Quebec is made from small and medium enterprises. So it could be art, it could be food. It could be like a metro semiconductor. It could be medical equipment. We work on a lot of different subjects and categories.
All of your members have certain characteristics and challenges in common when entering the U.S. marketplace. Have you seen certain ones that rise to the top?
Well, one of the big concerns is where to go in the U.S. Which product and which place is going to be the best place for me to go. So we do a lot of work with them. And a lot of people sometimes don’t know where to go, but also don’t realize that there’s a lot of services to go to the United States. So this is why we work with people from the Secretary of Commerce. We work with people from the U.S. consulate in Montreal and also in Quebec City. Quebec is the only province where there are two U.S. general consulates. So we basically work with them and the U.S. embassy to make sure that they get the right help. And some of that help can be from county, cities, and the United States, or economical organizations. So this is the way we work.
Do you also work with professional services partners in the private sector?
Yes, we do. So we work with different partners. We have partners on both sides that can help businesses really to understand the laws and different rules when you go to particular places.
And depending on the product or service, there are also regulatory issues that arise in the United States.
Yes. So those are also things that we need to work with.
Some of the sectors you mentioned, particularly high tech, also focus on intellectual property and protecting that IP. Do your members have experience in doing that? And what is the importance of protecting intellectual property in the United States market?
Well, there is a big importance in intellectual property, especially when you are an SME. So something that we do is webinars to inform them of what is really important to do and also the resources. Because the U.S. is a very big market, way bigger than Canada. So there’s a lot of work to do with that.
With regard to your members, how many do you have approximately right now?
We have about 700 members. Some of them are big in major industries and some of them are SMEs.
How many offices does AmCham Quebec have?
We actually have one office.
Do you have events that are available to your members?
Yes, we do. And something that I wanted to say is that AmCham Quebec is a volunteer organization. So everybody that actually helps, we are all volunteers. And we have meetings, webinars, and different events where we inform people about different ways of getting into the United States.
Are there certain goods or services or sectors for which Quebec is known for?
It’s basically minerals, wood, the electronics industry, semiconductors, aluminum, and service.
Tariffs have been in the news recently. How do you think they will impact Quebec-United States trade?
We were happy when we heard that there was an arrangement between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump not to pass it on because that would have a significant impact on both economies. Canada’s GDP would shrink by 2.6%, roughly Canadian $78 billion, costing Canadians approximately $1,900 per person annually. And for the U.S. GDP, it would shrink by 1.6% or $467 billion, costing Americans approximately $1,300 per person annually. We need to realize that the relationship between Canada and the United States has been there for the last 170 years. And we are more than trade partners. We are beyond trade. We are partners. We collaborate on special projects and we need to thank North America.
Have your members expressed concern about the potential tariffs and how it will impact their international trade efforts?
Yes, it’s a big concern because some people may lose their jobs. Some companies will stop doing business with the U.S. and we don’t want that. Canada is the primary trading partner of 36 U.S. states, supporting millions of jobs and thousands of businesses on both sides of the border. SaaS protectionists measures risk weakening our interconnected economy and well-coordinated solutions exist to address common challenges. We need to have another way to answer the challenge. You know, we’ve been doing business for the last 170 years.
Quebec borders New York and certain New England states. Does AmCham Quebec primarily work with those states as opposed to other states throughout the nation?
Well, we work everywhere in the United States. We have partners in Michigan. This fall we had a visit from Senator Young from Indiana. And we went to visit Bromont where IBM has a factory that builds 80% of all the semiconductors that IBM makes in North America. So we’re working everywhere.
I know that the New England states such as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine have a particular affinity towards Quebec and their business partners.
Yes, well, look at the Maine Senator who mentioned that a major part of Maine’s economy is doing business with New Brunswick and Quebec. And if we put a 25% tariff that’s going to cost American jobs. So this is why we’re promoting that yes, in Canada, we will be affected strongly, but the United States will also be affected and it could put both countries in a recession.
You have several events that you attend each year with respect to United States commerce.
That’s correct.
One of them is SelectUSA, is that correct? Can you briefly describe what SelectUSA is and why AmCham Quebec attends this event?
I’m proud to say that two years ago we had SelectUSA in Montreal. One of the local events was the SelectUSA Canada in Montreal and we had the biggest participant group with 327 businesses that came to that event in Montreal. And we also participate in SelectUSA in Washington, DC every spring. And this event helps Canadian businesses meet American businesses and American states and different economical organizations to discuss where they should invest and in which state and which part of the United States they could find their best partners.
Do you exhibit at SelectUSA?
Usually we don’t, but we work in partnership with Investissement Quebec.
With regard to the companies who are members of AmCham Quebec who attend SelectUSA, do they have certain profiles?
Well, it’s mostly services, it’s retail, medical equipment, mineral woods. Those are the major companies that usually come with us. And also, this year we had a great delegation from AquaAction for the anti-water treatment.
Do you have any success stories of your members who have attended SelectUSA in terms of partnerships?
Well, we had a few of them. Just look at AquaAction who got different partnerships with different businesses in the United States. We do have an SME and it also found partnerships with different businesses in the United States. One of them in particular, they were doing a project for physiotherapy, and they found great partners in the United States to promote their product.
Entering the U.S. market can be daunting for SMEs and even sophisticated companies. They don’t know where to start sometimes. Do you help them with the sequence of identifying actions?
Yeah, we start from the basics. And this is the mission that AmCham Quebec has. Start with the basics. So how to do site selection in the U.S.? How to open a bank account in the United States? Where to go? What are the state regulations where you want to go? What are the laws on immigration? What are the rules for employers? We support them in all of this.
Do your members who end up doing business in the United States have manufacturers within the United States or do they primarily export from Canada their finished goods?
Most of our members usually export their final goods into the United States. But we do have a certain percentage, like 30%, where they have a U.S. partner or they have a facility in the U.S.
How long have you been the CEO of AmCham Quebec?
Seven years.
I understand that you’ve grown exponentially since then.
Yes, my goodness, yes. If you go back seven years, AmCham Quebec was more sort of a social club where we had different meetings but it was mostly cocktails when we had the visit of a governor or a VIP from the United States. But in the last seven years, we started working more with SMEs. We started to take some different positions and we started to do concrete actions to help businesses go to the United States, like I was mentioning, going to the basics. Make them understand that going to the United States is not very difficult if you have the right person to support you. We started with the U.S. Consulate in Montreal. We have a program where the U.S. Consulate team travels to different regions in Quebec and meets with businesses that are interested in going to the United States. So we have people from immigration, people from customs, people from commerce, and people from the State Department that travel with us to meet them. And sometimes we find very interesting stories. Like one of them in Joliet, which is about 45 minutes north of Montreal. Well, there’s a business there that makes the IMAX screens for movie theaters all over. And their major client is in the east side of the United States. And it’s not something that a lot of people know, but they’ve been there for the last 15 years.
You work with other AmChams throughout Canada, is that correct?
That is correct, and AmChams all over the world because there are AmChams actually all over the world.
What are some of the provinces that also have AmCham locations in Canada?
We have AmCham Atlantic, AmCham Quebec, of course, AmCham National Capital, they’re in Ottawa, AmCham Toronto, AmCham Alberta, they’re in Calgary, AmCham British Columbia, and AmCham Pacific, they’re in Vancouver.
For a company who is interested in joining AmCham Quebec, how can they get started?
Just contact us on our website or join me on LinkedIn and we will make sure to contact them and start a good partnership with them.
What is your website?
It’s amchamquebec.com.
Is there anything else you’d like to add before we end today’s session?
Well, the message that we’re passing is that, you know, Canada and the United States, we’re more than trade partner, we’re friends, we’re allies. If I look at myself, I’m American and a Canadian. I have both nationality. I’m from Waterbury, Connecticut. So, we can continue to work and develop that great relationship that we’ve been doing for more than 170 years.
Michel Belval, President of AmCham Quebec. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Thank you very much.
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