Hello everyone and welcome to today's webinar doing business in Germany, market and collaborative opportunities for British Columbian companies. My name is Ganna Drost, I'm Manager at the Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch, British Columbian Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. I'm joined today by my colleague Chelsea Luciani, Senior Manager at the same branch. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the time speaking today from the territories of the Likwungen speaking peoples, the Esquimalt and Sundi's First Nations. And I invite you to take a moment and reflect on the territories and communities from where you're connecting today and where you live, work and play. So our today's webinar will focus on opportunities for BC companies in German market and Germany is an important destination for BC experts and is ranked number two as a destination for BC experts to the European Union in 2020 and is also number 12 as a destination for BC experts worldwide. In today's webinar, we'll go into the opportunities that this largest consumer market in the European Union as well as has to offer and also into some collaborative projects that can help you grow and boost your international presence. So we are very fortunate to have experts from the provincial and federal government today who join us from Ottawa, Germany, London and BC. And let me do a quick round of introductions. So we have Andreas Weihardt, Minister, Councillor, Commercial and Senior Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin. Rupert Potter, Managing Director, Europe Trade and Investment Representative Office of BC. Daniela Hallett, Investment and Trade Specialist who works with Rupert. Christopher Teparadze, Senior Trade Finance Manager for British Columbia and Puberallan Region with Expert Development Canada. Andrew Boudre, Industrial Technology Advisor at the National Research Council of Canada, Industrial Research Assistance Program. And we have our special guest today, John Skinner, owner of Painted Rock Estate Binary in BC. So dear speakers, we are very thankful for your availability to join and share your expertise with BC companies in today's webinar.  The webinar will last approximately one hour and a half today and there will be five presentations. We will start with a short introduction into the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and we'll see how it works. And then we'll move to the presentation about BC Trade and Investment Representative Office in Europe and in Germany before going into the German market and expert opportunities overview by the Trade Commissioner Service. We'll then invite John Skinner to share his success story and inspire you to start your expert journey in the German market. And then we'll move to the overview of Expert Development Canada solutions that can help you solidify your presence in Germany. And we'll finish it off with a presentation about joint Canada or Germany collaborative industrial research and development, both a proposal by National Research Council of Canada. We have reserved approximately 10 minutes for a Q&A session at the end of the webinar and I invite you to use the Q&A box that you can see at the bottom of your screen and you may ask your questions during the webinar at any time, but please try to be as specific as you can and if possible I'm mentioning who you direct your questions to. So our session is being recorded and the presentations will be made available in positive end email with the exception of Andrew's presentation that will not be shared publicly. If you experience any problems with audio or other technical issues, please send a message using the chat function either to me or to Chelsea Luciani. So let's start with a quick introduction into the role of BC Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation and then I'll also move to the Canada's free trade agreements and show you where they are and I'll explain what the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement does and what key opportunities it offers for goods and we'll show you some resources as well. So the BC Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation aims to make life more affordable for British Columbians by building a strong and sustainable economy and improve the standard of living. And increasing trade and investment for BC is critical and is an important part of our government's economic recovery plan and there are many ways to increase trade and one way is to encourage businesses to leverage opportunities offered in free trade agreements and help you to diversify your expert markets and that's what we are going to do today. Of course, governments do not trade but businesses like you do and we focus on providing you support and having your back when you do your business outside of the province, domestically or internationally. So Canada, of course, is the trading nation and today we have 15 free trade agreements that cover 49 countries. Those agreements give you access to nearly 90% of expert markets or about 1.5 billion potential consumers worldwide. So this map shows you where in the world Canada currently has those free trade agreements in place and the trade agreements that are in force are marked in blue and some of the well-known are of course KUSMA, Canada's Agreement with the US and Mexico. The CPTPP-1 which is Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This agreement is currently enforced between Canada, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Mexico and of course the CETA, Canada's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union and we are going to dive into it now. So the CETA is Canada's most ambitious trade agreement so far. It covers lots of sectors and aspects of trade. The European Union market is world's largest single market and largest integrated economy and it is market of approximately 440 million consumers and accounts for over 25 trillion dollars in GDP. CETA has been provisionally enforced since September 2017 and what it means that it has been provisionally enforced, it means that so far 15 out of 27 EU member states have ratified it and it will come into full force once all EU member states ratified. But so far this means that 95% of the agreement is already in effect. So with the CETA, Canada is now the only G7 country with preferential FTA access to two largest economies, the European Union and the US and Canadian companies also currently retain significant competitive advantage over US exporters into the EU market since the US doesn't have a trade agreement with the European Union. So now let's see what CETA offers in terms of benefits. So one of the key and more tangible benefits of free trade agreements is tariff reduction and tariff elimination and on day one of CETA preliminary entry into force, 98% of the EU tariff line on Canadian goods were eliminated including those on key BC experts such as forest products, metals and minerals some manufactured goods and also most of the agricultural food. So another 1% will be phased out by 2023 and on this slide you can see some of the tariff eliminations and reductions that are already in effect. So you can see that 96% of fishing seafood tariffs were eliminated and 94% of agriculture and agriculture tariffs were eliminated as well. The important thing is that the preferential treatment and the preferential tariff is not on the bottom and you have to claim it. You have to claim it either on your invoice, proving that your product originates in Canada or you can also fill it a separate origin declaration that proves that where your product comes from and that it complies with the rules of origin. So let's see what other opportunities CETA offers for goods. And except for tariffs there are also non-tariff barriers and they are often technical requirements of course and some different standards that exist between countries such as certification procedures, labeling requirements and some other regulations related to human animal or plant health. And fortunately CETA contains a protocol on the mutual acceptance of the results of confirmative assessment and this protocol was designed to allow Canadian products in certain categories to be tested and certified to the EU standards in Canada and vice versa. So covered by this protocol are some of areas for example electrical and electronic equipment, electrical installations and appliances and some related components, radio and telecommunication equipment, hot water boilers, machinery, toys. Of course this is the protocol and there is some work behind that needs to be done by both parties by Canada and the European Union. And as of April this year there are already four Canadian certification bodies that can certify equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres such as mines and those bodies are recognized in the EU and can officially now certify the Canadian products to be shipped there. And some more Canadian bodies are to be certified and this is a work in progress. So most importantly free trade agreements like the CETA they create transparency and predictability in doing business in foreign markets for suppliers of goods, services and for those seeking to attract investment or to invest. So now I just wanted to quickly show you some resources that you might find useful for determining your preferential tariff treatment or when submitting your claim about tariff barrier. So I'll start with a Canada tariff finder. This tool helps you to determine your tariff preference in a select Canada FTA market. It's a handy and fairly user friendly tool for figuring out your tariff, the tariff that your product will face in a market with which Canada has an FTA. So it includes detailed information on tariff phase outs for CETA for example for up to seven years until 2023. And it can also serve you as a comparison. You can compare the duties applicable to your product in other markets as well. So all you need to begin in is the FTA market, choose the FTA market you're interested in and the product that you want to export or to import. And you can find product using HS code if you know it or just a keyword. So next I wanted to share with you the similar resource that the European Union has developed and this tool is called the Access to Markets. And this is a new portal that you exporters and importers can use to find the detailed information on tariffs, rules of origin, product requirements, some customs procedures and formalities, VAT excise duties and some trade statistics as well. So I encourage you to visit this site and you have the link here at the bottom of the screen and it will give you a sense of what exporting your product to the European Union market will look like as well as provide you some further links for your reference. So another resource, very handy one will be one of my last slides is the website where you can report a trade barrier to the trade commissioner service. So trade barriers, they come in two forms, tariff and non-tariff barriers. And trade barriers, they also include some administrative procedures or quantitative restrictions like quotas, some licensing requirements or price controls and labeling sometimes as well. So it is important to remember that some regulations and procedures will be considered a trade barrier and some regulations might be there in place to protect public health or the environment. But when you are facing a legitimate trade barrier it is useful to get the information there and to let the federal government know about it and you may think that someone has already reported this problem or barrier but it's not necessarily true and the more the federal government hears about this barrier the quicker it might be resolved. So it is helpful to let the federal government know about anything that you face that might be a barrier. And finally I just wanted to show you a quick slide with our content details and some of the social media resources that have. So if you have questions about Canada's pre-trade agreements or how to use them just get in touch with us and also try and check our social media links to stay up to date with the current developments and latest trade related events. So now I want to pass it over to Daniela Hallett from BC Trade Investment Office in Germany for her presentation of the office and some key sectors of interest. Daniela, over to you. Thank you, Ghana. Yes, thank you for the introduction. My name is Daniela Hallett and I am part of a team of seven that represent BC in Europe. Our managing director as Ghana already mentioned is Robert Potter who is with us on the call today. To today's webinar I would like to provide a brief overview of our services and what we are seeing in the German market in the sectors we cover. Just to remember or to remind you all we work to BC's Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. Our main office for Europe is based in London but we also have a colleague in the Netherlands and me in Germany. Our mandate is to support BC businesses accessing the European market as well as to work with international businesses in discovering the benefits of BC as a destination for investment, partner for innovation or a source of quality goods, services and resources. To do this we provide market intelligence and advice and we help BC businesses need potential buyers, investor and other partners in Europe. Additionally we also partner or work closely with the trade commissioners in each European country and also industry bodies and associations. We have organized trade missions, events, seminars. We attend some of the main industry events with a booth or as part of a Canadian pavilion. Next slide, Ghana, please. Thank you. As you can see in this organic come, we cover a range of sectors based on their relevance and importance for BC combined with where we see opportunities for trade and investment in the European market. Next slide, please. Thank you. The next few slides provide an overview of the sectors we focus on proactively and some of the dynamics we are seeing in Germany within those sectors. Starting with AcreFood. In AcreFood our focus is mainly on helping BC food processors get in front of European buyers, including online sales and virtual showcases and B2B matchmaking programs. As you might know and Ghana has mentioned already as well, Germany is the strongest economy in the most populous member state of the European Union and one of the world's largest or needing AcreFood importers. Despite the ongoing COVID crisis, German consumers remained optimistic about the financial future and their overall expenditure has stayed relatively constant, which is also due to the fact that the government has introduced some extensive economic relief programs to help mitigate the effects of the crisis. Generally speaking, the German food and beverage market is receptive to new cultural influences and culinary trends and both national and international companies operate in almost every sub-segment of the market. The food and beverage industry is the fourth largest in Germany and the largest sector segment by production value on meat and sausage products, dairy products, baked goods and confectionary. Health and environment awareness are also playing an increasingly significant role. Fair trade and organic products have become even ever more important and consumers are increasingly demanding traceability and information about production methods. Ethnic foods, beauty foods, superfoods, clean label, foods free from products, vegetarian vegan products, you name them, are gaining also more and more in popularity among German consumers and this corresponds with an expanding consumer base that sees its choice of products or eating habits as either a lifestyle statement or even a political statement. It's also interesting to mention that German consumers, industry and retail markets also have a stronger version to products containing GMOs due to their potential risks to health and the environment and since the German government has banned GMO cultivation and introduced the non-GMO certification which is called Ohnegehntechnik the issue of GMOs continues to affect people's acceptance of the state has to be set so incorporating certified organic, non-GMO vegetarian vegan free from items and product lines can be highly beneficial when you want to enter the German market. Some of you have also might already experience Germany is a very price sensitive market but consumers on the other hand are also increasingly willing to spend more on quality products. Additionally, the aging population and health conscious consumers are fueling demand for functional food products. So in addition, a rising number of single households combined with fast-paced living are also driving demand for ready-to-eat meals ready to eat desserts, snacks, baking mix anything that uses less time to prepare. In retail, the trend of e-commerce has been accelerated since the pandemic and I think this is globally the overall market and digitalization are still growing from a low base however in 2019 online food sales accounted for less than 1% of total German food sales meaning this is a route BC firms might want to consider barriers to entry for cooperating with national fulfillment and logistics providers are relatively moderate. However, there are real challenges to consider before deciding if Germany is the right market to try imports from Canada face competition from products from neighboring EU member states and it is a mature market with a high domestic ability to meet most of local demand. Strict national and EU regulation for imports mean Canadian exporters need to offer products that meet all levels of packaging labeling safety distribution requirements and given that food imports from other member states within the EU fall under the free movement of goods principle third country manufacturers may be required to register on EU approved lists and the German market can be daunting for Canadian exporters given the dominance of domestic giants such as Baderberger, Gerhard Steiner, Pohnen, Dr. Edgar just to name a few when talking about ACRI-Tech although we support BC ACRI-Tech firms looking to access the German and wider European market and more on supporting expertise to invest in BC and partner with BC stakeholders Germany has always been a strong agricultural has always had a strong agricultural sector despite high population density half the territory is put to agricultural use the Covid crisis has further enhanced giants such as the use of agricultural technologies given its ability to help the farming sector enhance its sustainability and recover from the outbreaks impact digital agricultural solutions such as drones and other tools can help achieve efficiency savings other digital solutions can link farmers to bias logistic services remote sensing tools combined with machine learning offers a promising approach to mapping disruptions in crop production the digitalization of the aquifood sector is also a leading theme in the use found to fork strategy in the sense that all actors in the food chain should utilize technology and digital solutions to deliver on sustainability goals such methods can be applied from beekeeping to animal husbandry aquaculture and aquaponics another long-term effect from the Covid crisis might be increased attention for local farming which in urban environments may drive new farming technologies such as vertical farming and urban farming methods BC has a strong and growing architect sector with companies potentially able to benefit from these developments in our opinion within life science and health we encourage European partnerships and investments into BC as well as supporting BC firms exporting into Europe Germany offers the largest market for products within Europe both market demand and location factors and third choice for many international companies the country is home to several large metal companies but the sector as in many other sectors is dominated by the German middle stand which are SMEs many of whom also export abroad overall there is a stable demand for high quality advanced diagnostics and therapeutic equipment innovative technologies and minimal invasive equipment in vascular surgery, neurology, gastrology dermatology and neurosurgery for example trends in the market include the move to wearable and wireless medical technologies more personalized medicine based on individual patient requirements computer assisted surgery the shrinking of electro medical equipment and nanotechnology products and new technologies emerging and first responder care Germany is also proactive in solutions to address the aging population it is expected that by 2035 there will be around 24 million people over 65 and the over 50s will account for approximately half of Germany's population so there will be an uptake in demand for diagnostic equipment to detect chronic disease in the early stages to prevent higher costs later on as well as demand for specialized wound care and easy to use home care products technology is in high demand in all segments as well however Canadian capabilities in digital healthcare unfortunately are not so well known in Germany primary competitors are local systems developers but these also represent potential partners for cooperation including technology transfer, joint ventures, joint research and mutual market access AI is already widely employed across the German life science sector too wearables and robots that perform repetitive laboratory tasks or complex surgeries are common the German government invested around 500 million euros in AI in 2019 with a special focus on care and biotechnology Germany is also home to several well known AI classes which are among Europe's largest like the cyber valley in Tübingen in the south of Germany however there are still opportunities for BC companies in the sectors though expert expect healthcare growth of 3.4% by 2030 and Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research has therefore implemented an initiative to merge data from clinical settings and research institutions making it usable for different types of application to promote AI projects then the word of caution the German life science market also presents a challenge as industry giants like Siemens, Bayer, Träger, B-Prauen Bayer, Storf and Fresenius are well entrenched so to enter this market new exporters must be really cutting edge and have high quality competitively priced products and a successful entry to the German market first requires the establishment of a strong scientific or technical reputation next slide please thank you which leads me on to ICT and the digital interactive media sector key sub sectors of interest here include cybersecurity, internet of things, big data, cloud computing business IT, data centers small smart business, social platforms integrated systems, VR, AI and digital factory Germany has one of the largest ICT markets in the world and is the largest software market in Europe there's a strong demand for products and services across all segments with key firms such as Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Adobe, IBM, Oracle and SAP all having large market shares already there are also many highly specialized SMEs again in this market ICT overall is a priority sector for the German government Germany's economic and innovation policies outlined in the digital agenda of the federal ministry of economics and energy it focuses on digital infrastructure economy, workplaces, public administration, education research, science, culture and security policy objectives include cybersecurity the digitization of the German economy and the expansion of the German broadband network but challenges include ensuring compliance with EU digital single market the general data protection regulation GDPR and the privacy regulation in ICT companies in advanced manufacturing we support trade and investment and help foster tech partnerships with major European firms to support ITB offsets our focus here is on aerospace, marine and infrastructure to carry on with aerospace the German aerospace sector is an important driver of the German economy and one of the leading high tech industries including robotics, measuring, control and materials technology but as across as the rest of the world the market has experienced big challenges from the pandemic according to the German Aerospace Industries Association a number of small and medium sized companies are even struggling to survive there may be some opportunities in process digitization and smart manufacturing smart propulsion systems and enhanced product life cycle management but for BC companies opportunities in the traditional supply chain business remains limited at best to add to this the German Aerospace Industries Association aims to preserve the technical and economic capabilities of the German aviation industry with procurement program decisions giving preference for European and national solutions I thought that might be worth mentioning as well in marine, German shipyards are said to be a world leader in building vessels for the cruise industry, luxury yachts, harbor research and cargo vessels to name a few smaller shipyards also produce a variety of vessels for military and security purpose German shipyards usually have an integrated supply network and present opportunities to Canadian producers to engage including green technologies such as fuel, fuel and LNG propulsion scrubber and exhaust treatment, solar technology and fuel cells, engine optimization energy saving devices and mobile LNG power plants Germany has also several seaports and inland ports that could be relevant customers for BC marine tech solutions the ocean tech sector is very dynamic with potential for BC in different areas like offshore oil and gas wind and marine renewables, energy ocean mining, maritime security, Arctic polar and marine research, marine monitoring and environmental protection technology to name a few again, there more the market includes different system integrators in small companies that develop solution for all fields of applications within clean growth I think it's worth mentioning that Germany is also home to one of the most advanced environmental technology markets environmentally friendly products a key success factor for the country's economy in 2016 environmentally friendly energy generation energy efficiency, resource efficiency and sustainable mobility, sustainable water management waste management and recycling amount to around 15% of GDP this is expected to increase to around 20% by 2025 and we believe it offers promising opportunities for foreign companies wishing to expand their green business in Germany for BC we are working particularly in sub-sectors such as hydrogen, the circular economy water, waste water management, carbon management building and marine technology the combination of clean BC and Germany's drive to clean tech make this sector at large a strong base for further development next slide please thank you I'm not going into much detail on this slide because I think there aren't any companies from these sectors joining us today by way of quick summary though we are proactive in forestry although not specifically for Germany, more on other parts of Europe for example the Nordics and the UK energy is the most relevant for the German market with the emphasis in both Germany and BC on developing the hydrogen economy renewables, energy management infrastructure around natural gas and LNG for mining we are more reactive and happy to help where we can but we have not dealt with this specifically in Germany with our focus here being more in London as a key market for mining capital one of my colleagues Graham Hilton is based in UK and we have all of these sectors on the slide so if anyone is interested I'll be more than happy to make connections and we would like to work with you just to come to a conclusion so it's probably a little bit difficult but I think it's fair to say that the German market overall provides great opportunities for BC in trade and investment in large part this is due to its large scale challenges and some of the major trends we see around consumer behaviour health, energy and the environment and the benefits of CETA of course but there are also challenges particularly in areas where German or other European companies dominate the market or where there is an increasing trend towards localisation so with this in mind the best way then to determine if this market is right for you specific product would be to find a right partner and of course to do as much research as possible and to speak to us in Europe but also to Andreas Weichert the trade commissioner who is also happy to help the next slide please Gana or the next two slides here we just see some BC companies that are active in Europe already just to provide a brief overview I'm sure there are a few more but I just haven't fit on there and on the next slide it's the other way around where BC where European companies are already active in BC so thank you very much for your time and if you have any questions please let us know we're happy to help Thank you so much Daniela for this comprehensive presentation on BC trade and investment office in Europe and the services that you provide to BC companies in Germany and the highlights of some of the areas so I'm now pleased to hand it over to Andreas Weichert from Canadian Embassy in Berlin for his presentation on trade commissioner service overview of German economy and market opportunities as well as some handful tips Andreas over to you Thanks Gana Thank you everyone for joining the webinar this afternoon this morning your time As Gana said my name is Andreas Weichert I'm a trade commissioner I've been a trade commissioner for over 25 years serving Canada at a number of different posts I am the senior trade commissioner here in Germany covering the government of Canada's commercial programs here been here since 2018 based in the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and I head up our three offices in Germany which cover trade, investment, science and technology and innovation programs Next slide So I will touch on many of the same things that Daniela has covered and thank you for the plug Daniela at the end absolutely talk to us and so I'll focus I guess a little bit more on the elements that haven't been covered yet a little bit on seat a little bit on the economy some key sectors a little bit on business etiquette and then what's going on with COVID here Next slide So the Canadian trade commissioner service I hope many of you are familiar with us We are celebrating we did celebrate our 125th anniversary last year helping Canadian businesses to succeed in global markets our first trade commissioner arrived in Australia in 1895 and our first trade office in Germany was opened in 1910 and pleased that we have the three offices we're on the ground in over 160 cities worldwide we are across Canada your local office is in Vancouver we look for market intelligence we help to uncover opportunities for Canadian companies it's free free is good I like free we help you through our core services of preparing for international markets we assess your market potential we give you some tips on how you can do business in your chosen markets and then we find you qualified contacts to do business with and if you do happen to get into trouble we can try and help you out with that too depending what the problem is next slide please a little bit about free trade agreements that has not already been covered Canada is the only G7 country that has trade agreements with all the other G7 countries which makes us somewhat unique not surprising we are a trading nation we always have been FTAs help companies to do more trade providing competitive advantages by lowering tariffs protection for investors in both directions increase your transparency of what problems you can face and how to overcome them you have rules in place it helps create better standards in both trading partners it improves cooperation between trading partners as Daniela had said it's not automatic you do have to register for taking advantage of these benefits next slide please so we've talked a little bit about CETA already this is a big one and in fact CETA we talk about it as the gold star trade agreement it's the most comprehensive that Canada or the EU have ever negotiated both sides want to use it as the model for future trade agreements with other partners it includes protections for governments to take action on certain areas of competence such as the environment but it really does open up the markets for the benefits of all players since CETA came into effect provisionally in September of 2017 the growth in trade has continued even through the COVID time we've increased annually by over 21% in merchandise trade between Canada and the European Union EU is now Canada's second largest trading partner with over $165 billion worth of goods and services in bilateral trade in 2019 next slide please so what does CETA offer to Canadian firms we covered a little bit of that earlier on CETA covers virtually all the sectors and aspects of Canada EU trade and seeks to eliminate or reduce barriers in all of these areas trade and goods CETA eliminates tariffs and reduces barriers for virtually all sectors and aspects of trade prior to the agreement only 25% of EU tariff lines on Canadian goods were duty free with CETA 98% of EU tariff lines are now duty free for Canadian goods we frequently meet Canadian companies who are in the market for the first time and they tell us they would not be here trying to sell if it were not for CETA having eliminated those tariffs rules of origin we talked about clear and favorable rules that considered Canada supply chains determining which products are considered originating and therefore eligible for preferential tariff treatment and trade facilitation Canada and EU are working to keep customs procedures simple clear and effective and predictable this reduces your processing times at the border and makes it easier to move goods regulatory cooperation and conformity assessment I did not talk about that at the beginning I did want to stress that there are working groups that meet regularly to discuss these areas the website on reporting trade barriers that you have encountered is very important in informing the Canadian government as to what to bring to these working groups what do we need to talk to the Europeans about relies on exporters like yourselves telling us where you're having problems government procurement is another area I wanted to mention Canadian companies can now bid on opportunities at all levels of government in the EU which opens up potential business estimated at something like $3.3 trillion annually this is a remarkable achievement in a free trade agreement trade and services and labour mobility CEDA provides Canadian service providers with more business opportunities in the EU and makes it easier for certain skilled professionals to work temporarily in the EU investment is covered under the provisions in CEDA CEDA provides services to skilled investors greater certainty, stability and protection for their investments and provide access to an independent dispute resolution mechanism and finally sustainable development labour in the environment I mentioned at the beginning CEDA does make clear commitments to uphold Canada's high standards and not to undermine them for commercial gain clear language confirms the right to regulate for all levels of government so a few key market facts for Germany largest European market 83 million inhabitants actually I heard 85 million the other day from a local source 16% of the total European population largest economy in Europe fourth largest in the world GDP of $5 trillion it's about 21% of total European GDP if you're coming to the EU it's not really a country the German economy is very open to imports and exports totaling 88% of their GDP it's our first trading partner sorry it's for most European countries it is their first trading partner within the EU and it's the sixth largest trading partner for Canada Germany imported $7 billion worth of goods from Canada in 2019 which is the last year I've had figures for in front of me with the implementation of CEDA I think it's worth noting that the areas where the largest reduction in tariffs to place has seen some pretty explosive growth and some of it's on the slides they are chemical products 132,000% growth and that's massive numbers they are some small areas of export but nonetheless it does show that removing the tariffs can make a real difference next slide please so Germany exports, sorry Canadian exports to Germany it's Canada's largest destination for exports to the EU and for Canada it's the fourth largest source of imports after the US, China and Mexico Germany is a manufacturing country with leading exports which include vehicles, vehicle parts, machinery chemical pharmaceutical products, computer electrical equipment and these are all among the top items that Canada imports from Germany in terms of opportunities for small, medium-sized enterprises and larger companies getting into these value chains to help to produce some of these products that are coming back to Canada anyway is a good market strategy next slide please so specific sectors, again I actually don't disagree with any of the ones that Daniella put up and some of them are here the top three sectors, automotive which we'll go into manufacturing a lot of good Canadian companies having success in the automotive value chains here clean tech is very big I have the regional clean tech trade commissioner based here in Berlin for Europe and we do all sorts of work including with a number of BC companies Life Sciences has been mentioned again, a strong sector for BC seeing a lot of activity from BC companies there and the other opportunities also all three of those I think are areas where there are BC companies active here in Germany that are having some very good success I won't go through the numbers on the relative sizes I think Daniella has covered and if not we can certainly send you the full numbers later we'll go to the next slide please so doing business in Germany, why would you choose Germany to do business well as I've said it's a major market for many industries and it's a huge consumer market in the EU which provides opportunity for many niche products Germany combines high capacity innovation and excellent workforce and good infrastructure with moderate wage cost competitive tax system there's a history of good scientific collaboration between Canada and Germany this year we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bilateral science and technology agreement which has supported more than a thousand joint research projects Germany is also highly interested in Canadian expertise in artificial intelligence and it's multiple possibilities in many sectors Hydrogen has been mentioned and this is an area where we can only guess how big it's going to be but with the climate goals that both Canada and Germany have committed themselves to they cannot be achieved unless we can make great strides in hydrogen research challenges I've noticed a very competitive market and there are countries nearby that are doing similar things that we are competing with so your product really needs to be either very high quality or at a significantly better price Germans are willing to pay for the higher quality if it's good if they see it as something better, they will pay for it Germany itself going on with challenges, Germany itself and as part of the EU has a regulatory framework that can be quite complex so getting advice on how to navigate it is vital having a German partner or being well advised, including by the trade commissioner service here and by BC trade and export can certainly help in navigating the system and finally we talked about family enterprises constituting the majority of the business environment in Germany and it's preferable to have a long-term strategy short-term buying and selling is often viewed unfavorably so be patient follow up and give your partner time to think about what your plan is some of these will seem almost well no surprise be on time, shaking hands is a good one this is an older slide and I didn't see to take that it's interesting to watch the COVID effect because even in Germany the hands are still shaking and then suddenly they realize what they were doing and they turn and get your elbow in instead but that doesn't mean don't have eye contact while your elbow to elbow communicating, be direct, be open they appreciate it if you express yourself clearly values structures and rules, Germany policies and procedures and processes many German business people prefer contracts and written agreements or verbal agreements dressing appropriately although I know I haven't used very many ties not just because of COVID but in general still dressed smartly, that's important showing up in jeans may not get you what you're looking for there's a male dominated business environment here still but we are seeing some changes and notably we ran a female business mission into Germany back in 2018 and it was so well received by the community here that in fact they ran a female mission back to Canada still the number of female managers is still tiny about 15% and self-employment is pretty small too about 7% about half the figure for men female entrepreneur is an exception but it's growing, it's changing next slide please and just very briefly on COVID-19 Germany's weathered this reasonably well there were good supports to the public people went on to short term work there were good supports to businesses that had to close so the pent up demand is similar to other countries but perhaps more so because it was a pretty rich support program here and the likelihood of the boom coming when things do finally open up is a good sign for our higher quality products and I'll leave the rest of those bullets next slide please brings me to the thank you and I think I've hit my time about right so I will leave it there thank you for listening I hope this has given you some ideas to consider the German market and I look forward to your questions at the end of the session thank you so much Andreas for this great overview I have lots of questions regarding the market opportunities and services that your team can provide in the German market and about the Germany as a whole so without further ado I'm excited to invite John Skinner to share his experience of getting into the German market and John started in the German market a decade ago so now he can boast a network of at least six distributors selling his wine to Michelin restaurants in Europe and John over to you well thank you Ghana sorry I've got my video on here can you see I'm not sure if the video is working yep we can see a video oh you can okay good sorry yeah I just wanted to share my experience with our industry the Canadian wine industry and the British Columbia wine industry for the simple reason that about a decade ago maybe a little less I participated in an event in Germany called Providence and it's an annual event in Dusseldorf and you know I was skeptical I was going to London I was going to China I was going to Japan and I wasn't really sure the reception the first event that I went to the Canada Pavilion it's always been very very well organized and it's in March every year and when we went into the larger Pavilion there are about ten of these that are for the overall event it's three days the Canada Pavilion was pretty pretty tiny and not very well attended there's probably a person an hour coming up to me in our thing and it was a little discouraging I went in year two and there for the three days there are about ten people an hour and they'd all been referred well in the last year pre-COVID that I was there there were constantly fifty people in front of us I've got distributors all over the place it isn't about right now it's not like I'm exporting a lot of wine but we are getting on to the in front of the right people and really it is it's a journey so Canadian wine the first questions of the consumers or the purchasers or the attendees with me at the very beginning was do you make ice wine and no we don't we produce bigger red wines primarily and the community of there's a British Columbia part there's an Ontario part there's no Scotia part they're starting to figure out who and what we are and what I would encourage my industry partners to do is go and be part of this because now I was I mentioned again that I just did a zoom call with seven Michelin Star restaurants in in Germany and they know who we are and they want a broader portfolio of our product and and it's enormously efficient doing business there there's it's easier to sell wine into Germany than it is in Ontario like it's just it's just so my team have these processes down pat if any of our industry have any questions I'm John Skinner painted rock.ca and I'm happy to connect but in order to participate in Provine I would encourage you to get in touch with wine growers of BC or your provincial wine agency it is it's a huge win and for you know in our context I didn't export any in my first year but now we do probably export 15% of our 8000 cases worldwide but the influencers and the impact on our personal brand our our familial brand our regional brand is really growing last year just before COVID I had two of my European distributors well two German distributors came to paint a rock in Penticton and they know who we are they brought their families it's it rubber sitting road and I just wanted to give a big voice of encouragement for participants to participate you know to go and be a little patient with it but all of a sudden you know if you if you wait for the business my philosophy has always been don't wait for business to come to you go and find it that's been a very of anywhere I've gone that's probably been the most rewarding experience I've ever had is the Dusseldorf Provine experience London is really good we do an event there at candle house every year in May it's a really good one to go to as well but but the Provine is access to all the other countries like we're now in Norway we're in Denmark we're in Belgium the Dusseldorf in March and that's just my two cents worth and I'm always available to our industry you know we do better as a team and Canada is a very easy sell right now our currency is really competitive the German market at my experience sells me is probably of any market in Europe it's prepared to pay a fair price and certain of the Nordic countries they want to see really inexpensive prices and that's not the model that they're going to produce we just want to decanter wine of the year our wines are expensive to produce so they're not I don't sell them cheaply on an international as you compare to international leaders they're perceived to be inexpensive and in Germany one of the biggest buyers came up to me and he was really excited about buying our Cira at $55 and he assumed it was 55 US I sold it to him 55 Canadian he was thrilled so that's just my two cents worth and I'll put it back to you now I'm just open to participate or communicate with our industry as needed because I'm a cheerleader for and it's starting to work thank you so much thanks a lot John we'll have companies especially from wine and alcoholic beverages industry who appreciated your insight and we'll be happy to connect those who are interested in and help them in touch with you thanks a lot and talk to you shortly so we are now moving on to our next presentation by Chris from Expert Development Canada and Chris will walk us through what Canada's Expert Credit Agency is and what what support it offers to companies like you and through some success stories of Canadian companies in the German market that use the EDC product so Chris the floor is yours great thank you Donna good morning everyone so I guess we can go to the next slide just keeping time in the top of my mind here a little bit of who EDC is so we are Canada's Expert Credit Agency we report through the Ministry of International Trade and we are here to support Canadian companies who are growing their brands outside of Canada we are owned by the federal government as mentioned however we do operate at arms length we are self sustaining or self we generate our own revenue so we are self sustaining by the federal government agency or department the next slide please globally we do have offices around the world we are headquartered in Ottawa with regional offices across Canada but here you see a snapshot of where our offices across the world are and these typically are housed in the embassy or somewhere similar to the embassy where we have boots on the ground so people in market or colleagues in market providing information and intelligence that are fed back to Ottawa and allowing us to benefit the end user which is a Canadian exporter so our mission is really quite simple at the end of the day we are here to help companies grow globally and succeed in markets across the world regardless of what market schools look like so the misconception is that EDC only helps companies of certain sizes and our help is mainly focused on financial tools that will help you grow and continue to grow in all markets but there is no company that's too small nor too big for us to provide value to we help companies that are exporting whether they be a service such as software companies or engineering firms that are providing their knowledge or people to companies that are traditionally manufacturing a widget that needs to leave the country regardless of the knowledge and experience that company has in international markets we are able to provide value and we just really need to know that you want to grow your brand in other markets outside of Canada that really is the only prerequisite for us to be a valuable partner in your journey. Next slide please I'm super busy and just really spits out a lot of stats but I just wanted to highlight a few things the numbers at a glance and how EDC provided value to the Canadian economy and Canadian exporters in 2019 we supported companies going into over 200 markets globally so traditionally it's the US or Mexico or the European Union but there are a bunch of other markets that we have provided support on anywhere from Botswana to Burkina Faso and everywhere in between what that support looks like varies from market to market but just an example of the diversity that we see from Canadian companies a large portion of the companies we provide value to are SMEs or the small media enterprises and we do have initiatives for women owned and led entrepreneurs as well as First Nations and companies owned by minorities Next slide please So just a couple of quick facts about why exporters do better or how they typically generate 121% more revenue than a company that isn't exporting they're going to be more innovative, they're going to be exposed to other ways of doing things they're going to be forced to maybe regroup other connecting business and therefore being thrown into the pit of being innovative and they're going to experience 20% less risk so seems counterintuitive why would I experience less risk going outside of Canada as opposed to servicing my own neighbourhood but it really just goes to market saturation in the event that if all your clients and all your businesses are within one market and if something happens within that market to disrupt the economy or whatever it may be you know that you're being diversified and not putting all your eggs in one basket Next slide please So how can ADC specifically help? Let's go to the next slide Our core offerings fall into three main buckets I mean you may go to our website to look for assistance and it's going to be pretty busy what I suggest is keeping in mind that there's three main buckets insurance or risk mitigation working capital solutions or financing and knowledge from a financing perspective we're not a bank or a lender we don't provide any of that but I'll explain how we provide the financing solutions in the next slide So the risk mitigation piece is what we call our credit insurance and so this is something that we can provide to companies of all sizes again doesn't matter but this is the risk mitigation piece and so it protects you against non-payment from your foreign buyer so we commonly call it or refer to it as counts receivable insurance it reduces your risk or protects you so in the event that you don't get paid you're going to recover 90% of the cost of that receivable or AR Because of this it's going to allow you to become more competitive to companies outside of Canada or to buyers outside of Canada because it's going to allow you to stretch on your payment terms maybe typically you require 50% up and 50% before shipment in the competitive global marketplace that may not go over too well in certain markets and so this insurance really will allow you to step outside the norm for your business and maybe offer net 30 or net 45 or whatever it may be and it's a flexible product and so at the end of the day if you have that first international sale or if you're a robust exporter with a big portfolio of export clients we can ensure one, two or as many as you want we do all the investigations so your buyer has no idea nor should they have any inclination of what we're doing we have a database that can tap into a lot of information and provide you with a premium on that particular buyer next slide please so a high level case is Jen owns a food production company and has started to receive interest from customers in Germany and abroad and these customers as mentioned are asking for payment terms she knows that this is going to increase her sales and her brand and she needs to explore other markets to remain sustainable and so is she going to get paid and how is she going to be able to finance carrying this receivable in her books well with the EDC credit insurance in place you're going to know and you're going to have that peace of mind in the event of a default from your buyer again you're going to recover 90% of the cost of that receivable so a pretty significant amount there how this could potentially work from a financing perspective is that in the event that you have a significant amount of receivables on your book your bank can start lending against those receivables or margining with the insurance in place typically banks, the Canadian banks are too comfortable in margining against foreign receivables just because there's the world of unknown for them however if there's an EDC receivables insurance policy in place and the policy is assigned to the bank they become the beneficiary so in the event that your buyer doesn't pay you your bank is going to get the proceeds of the claim however it's giving you access to more capital so you may have a line of credit in instances where you may not be able to have one otherwise next slide please so we're financing solutions again we're not a bank or a lender but we work with the banks and the credit unions across Canada to get them where they need to be really what it is at the end of the day is that EDC has the ability to enhance a bank's lending abilities this could look in how this looks could be any number of ways you could be looking to get an operating line of credit from your bank a term loan for maybe purchasing of equipment maybe you're investing in R&D so you need a shred facility the point being is regardless of what type of debt structure you're looking to get from your bank EDC can come in and potentially provide a guarantee next slide please the guarantee is again a mechanism to enhance the bank's lending capabilities and especially when companies are exporting quite a lot or into markets that aren't traditional the Canadian banks get a little bit concerned about that they like to be kept up to speed on how businesses are going they like to be secure and that's not always the case when you're exporting and going into emerging markets and so our guarantee will provide them with a lot more comfort knowing that at the end of the day should things go sideways they're going to knock on our door and usually we guarantee 75% of the lending structure in place so it's a vast majority of it and the bank loves that they have that security in the back of their pockets next slide please so how that would look like or what that would look like rather Jill's environmentally monitoring technology company has won their largest contract to date in Germany this contract would double the company's revenue and provide an opportunity to grow in a new market Jill's challenge is that there is 30-day payment terms from delivery which will mean working capital constraints and she needs to invest in pre-shipment financing so she goes to your bank and says listen Mr. Banker I have this huge opportunity it's going to really help me grow my brand outside of Canada I need to get some working capital in place and the bank will come to EDC and say EDC can you provide a 75% guarantee on this $500,000 we'll look at the company we'll look at Jill's company and determine obviously where her strategy is moving forward but we'll tell the bank yes go ahead lend her the money we will backstop that 75% of it and really again it's a mechanism to enhance their capabilities to lend to kind of coach them into becoming a little bit more open to the idea of lending to companies that they typically wouldn't because the exporting component has too many variables for the bank next slide please so the third solution the second working capital solution that we can provide value on is whenever a Canadian company is required to post a letter of credit or issue a bond of some sort there's a variety of ways this could look like but typically what we see a lot of is Canadian companies being requested from their foreign buyer to post an advanced payment bond or a performance bond really it's just a mechanism that the foreign buyer is asking to ensure that the Canadian exporter carries out on the obligations of that contract or PO and so typically this is a cash instrument your foreign buyer may say listen I want to purchase I want to enter into contract with you I want to do multiple shipments however I need you to give me 30% down so that I know that you're not going to to renege on this contract and you'll go to your bank to issue this instrument and the bank will acquire cash collateral we have the ability in this particular instance to tell the bank go ahead issue that letter of credit or bond we will backstop that 100% so a little bit different than the other program where we typically cap out at 75 for this particular program we will backstop that facility 100% so you don't need to use any of your working capital to provide this bond the bank has no risk because we're backing stopping at 100% and we're able to help the Canadian Exporting Company so if we go to the next slide the example here is Jim has a million dollar contract in Germany that requires a 10% performance bond which is a letter of guarantee or issued in a letter of guarantee or a stamp by a letter of credit Jim speaks to his bank and tells them they'll need to post and they tell him so they're either going to carve it out of his line of credit or ask him for $100,000 cash that they'll lock away and secure it against that letter of credit but as mentioned that's counterproductive because $100,000 is what Jim needs to execute and ramp up and to deliver on this particular contract so we have a product that will come in and again backstop that letter of credit 100% we're not taking any security from the bank we're not taking any security from the client or the exporter really it is at the end of the day there's a handshake between us and the Canadian exporter that they will carry out the terms and conditions of their contract and therefore we will backstop that facility 100% so at the end of the day we do have financial tools that's predominantly a large part of what we do we do work with our government partners such as the trade commissioner services because we do have market intelligence and we are often connecting companies with foreign buyers as part of our programs but really what we're judged on is the success of Canadian companies and international markets so if there's any part of the exporting journey that you are struggling with or need that advice on in addition to the other government partners on this call please feel free to reach out to EDC I'm base here at Vancouver Island however we do have a team of colleagues on the mainland we're more than happy to assist you and that is my presentation, over to you Ghana thank you so much Chris, great presentation thanks for working us through the EDC products as well as some case studies and this is something definitely to take away from today's webinar so we are now moving to our last presentation by Andrew Bauder who will explain the role of the National Research Council of Canada and the details of the industrial co-innovation programs with Germany Andrew over to you and I'll let you share your presentation great thanks very much just one moment while I share my screen here alright can you see my screen yes we can perfect alright thanks very much so as mentioned my name is Andrew Bauder specifically I'm with the industrial research assistance program which is better known as IROP in Canadian industry so I'm going to be talking a little less about doing business in Germany and more about collaborating with German partners especially regards to technological collaboration so I'm going to talk a bit about the National Research Council if you're not familiar with it it's a program and more specifically how we work internationally in Germany so briefly the National Research Council I think everyone probably heard of it long history in Canada more than 100 years people are probably most familiar with the research facilities the time signal that you hear on the radio every day there is a research facility in Vancouver actually quite a big one and we're spread across the country the NRC as we're known has a number of mandates one is to advance knowledge through innovation and technology development and also to work directly with business to help them innovate and there are more than 2000 engineers and scientists spread across the country working in NRC research facilities and then within the IRAP program where I'm which I'm part of there's more than 250 advisors spread across the country working directly with Canadian companies so specifically IRAP has a focus to help small and medium-sized companies and I'll tell you how we do that so at a glance these numbers are a little bit older we have to update them after the pandemic but if you look at 2018-2019 we've invested about $300 million in Canadian SMEs these are companies under 500 people we provide a lot of advice to companies well more than 8,000 companies we fund more than 3,000 so we're not always funding the same companies we're advising and again we have more than 250 advisors and we provide various services which I'll talk about so the core of the IRAP program if you're not familiar with it is the network of industrial technology advisors 150 across the country these advisors come into IRAP with private sector experience usually later in their career with management technology development experience and we work closely together to help our clients Canadian SMEs across Canada and we provide advisory services that's actually our core goal to help companies with technical and business advice we do a lot of referrals to other programs we're very connected with incubators universities colleges other government programs like the ADC we just heard of provincial programs and more and more internationally and after providing our advisory services or during we look for opportunities where we can help companies with funding and we do that through our core projects to help companies develop new products and processes through technology development sometimes helping them hire young employees and more and more we're working to help them with international projects when we look at a project in IRAP the basic eligibility for a company to get assistance from IRAP they have to be SME incorporated in Canada with less than 500 employees and then we also want to make sure that they have an objective to grow through innovation because we measure the program through the growth of the companies we serve and then of course when we look at the company we look very closely at the opportunity for their business to grow in terms of projects they may want to present to us so we look at the management and the financial capabilities of the company and the potential to exploit the technology and grow their company for the benefit of Canada of course we look very closely at the project we all have technical backgrounds various disciplines so we look at the technical project that they want to do exactly the plan, the challenges and the team they have in place to do that and the impact that we'll have on the firm and as I said earlier and to stress that we really focus our efforts on companies that have potential and willingness to grow so we want to see them grow their revenues and of course hire more skilled employees when you look at the technologies or the industry sectors that we serve it's really across the board we try not to pick and choose sectors it really depends on the companies that we deal with so you can see the digital technology companies we do a lot more of that and that's just the nature of the economy that we're in but we work with companies in agri-food and energy and health and manufacturing you name it in terms of the size of the companies we work with as I said we can work with companies up to 500 people we work with a lot of small companies under 10 people we're just getting started in terms of our international projects which I'm going to talk about more we prefer to focus on the companies that are a bit larger a bit more established able to scale up internationally so usually more than about 15 people upwards of these 20 to 50 person companies we find that they're the best suited for the specifically international projects and so we are working more and more to help companies grow globally not so much in terms of duplicating what the trade commissioner service does to help them expand their markets what we're looking at is helping them partner with other companies and organizations in other parts of the world to develop better technologies and to partner to get into new markets so when you look at the world we work in select economies focusing just quickly on the blue we work with global affairs actually to deliver a program helping companies connect with partners in Brazil in India, China, South Korea we're working starting to get programs in Japan more of a newer program for us and then the green that you see is Europe where we have a very established program through a program called Eureka I'll talk about briefly and then within Europe we have multiple programs with Germany actually Germany is the country that we work most with internationally and we have the most projects with so quite just quickly we're part of a program called Eureka Canada is a member National Research Council delivers it on behalf of Canada almost every country in Europe including Germany is a part of Eureka and it's basically a platform for countries to work together to co-fund projects where the funding comes from the national governments there's no Eureka money comes from Canada or Germany or the Netherlands whichever country most important for this discussion there's a call for proposals twice a year in a program called Eurostars which is part of Eureka and basically it's an opportunity for Canadians and Germans or other partners in Europe to work together on projects it's a competitive call where projects are competing against each other for to be ranked high enough for funding there's another go through this slide the key with your Eurostars is the SMEs in the driving seat has to be led by an SME in one of the countries but sometimes universities and larger companies there's another program called Eureka clusters I won't get into this right now but this is an opportunity for companies to work with many companies at once usually in Europe 10, 20, 30 companies on larger projects and we can talk more about if anybody has any interest there and then with Germany in particular as I said beyond Eureka we have bilateral programs because Germany is such a great country for Canadian companies to innovate with so for example we work with the Ministry for Research and Education in Germany known as EMBF we've launched a couple of calls for proposals these are actually to form consortia of Canadian SMEs working with universities, German companies and German research institutes and BC companies and universities have been involved in these calls we had a call around industry 4.0 which is digitalization of manufacturing a couple of years ago and then last year we had a call around artificial intelligence for manufacturing this year it looked like we'll be addressing hydrogen and this actually came out of a recent meeting with our Prime Minister and Chancellor Merkel in Germany so it hasn't been officially announced yet but it looks very much like we'll be doing something around hydrogen to be launched this fall working with EMBF we also work with another German program PMWI, Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and this is more of an open call for proposals around all technologies mainly for SMEs in both Germany and Canada we've launched 8 calls for proposals in the last few years very successful we've just launched the 9th call in April which I'll talk about right now so the IROP ZIM program this is a program to develop technologies between Germany and Canadian companies all technologies are a fair game for this you have to have a strong application strong market potential and it should be an obvious advantage as per all of our projects for the companies to work together as I said this is focused on Canadian German companies sometimes German research institutes are involved with the German companies the German government in Canada for IROP we have to focus our funding at least for this program on SMEs in two years the last most recent call was launched in April on September 24th there will be a deadline for Canadian only to register with IROP for expression of interest so if you're interested in this call for proposals you can contact me we have all the information online and you should register as soon as you can if you're interested you really need a German partner to register for this the proposal deadline will be in December and the projects will start in spring of 2022 finally just before I finish I should mention we work closely with Global Affairs Canada with Andreas and his team in Germany of trade commissioners we work with Global Affairs to bring companies to Germany when there's no pandemic specific areas we had a bio economy mission last year artificial intelligence mission and then during the pandemic we had a mission for medical technology companies that was virtual so we're going to be doing more of these missions this year in specific technology areas so keep in touch with NRCI RAP and Global Affairs Canada to find and learn more about these missions for Canadian companies to connect with German partners alright thanks thank you so much Andrew and thanks for this very concise presentation and I'm sure we'll be getting some questions from the audience later on to steer the discussion and now I wanted us to begin answering some questions that we've been having that you've been kindly sending us during the whole webinar I see that we are running out of time a little bit but we are still able to take some of the questions and please just submit some if you still have not in the Q&A question pane and we'll make sure that we'll follow up after the webinar so I've seen there were some questions that were already answered by our panelists regarding the Indigenous coffee and some information was provided on the hydrogen business as well as the registration for expert dietary supplements in Europe the potential consumers so finding the potential consumers in the German market this is something as well that can be directed to Daniela Rupert and Andreas too so we have a couple of outstanding questions I guess one is for expert development Canada and the question is is there a minimum contract value for this I guess for the program in general no I mean at the end of the day again because we are not a bank your bank is going to be doing a lending but we provide the guarantees if you are talking about the insurance there is no minimum to protect yourself against non-payments so bring it to me engage with me and we can have that chat but we don't have any thresholds per se okay great and Chris do you have your contact details at the end of your presentation with the attendees yeah I can share them with the attendees I don't think it's in the PowerPoint but I'll put up okay great and I think we have one more question regarding the shipment certificate so I'll just read it loud so that everyone can see it so the question we always have to supply to apply for shipment certificate from Global Affairs Canada to ship our products that are critical metals to the European Union or its diagnostic medicine business it is only valid for a month so we have to do it every time for shipment and client and they are asking if we have any thoughts to go around this so that they can ship without this hurdle every single time so I know Andreas wanted to answer that question probably to take it I guess I'm the only one from Global Affairs here so I'll take it I need more information I mean based on your description in the Q&A it sounds like some sort of medical isotope there are requirements for shipping some types of goods but I'd be happy to engage with you directly and seek some responses from my headquarters to see if there's any easier way that this might be achieved for you Great, thanks so much Andreas and I think we can just take probably one or two more questions so there was a question Andrew at the registration stage and I believe this can be relevant to some of the companies that are on the line so there was a BC company looking for German SME partners suitable for ZIM and Arab funding projects and the company was wondering who they might approach to find those partners is there any German organization that would help them to connect with suitable partners? Sure, I mean it's a bit tough to answer quickly right now but I would say please contact me directly again if you you can share my email with everyone short answer is it's there is no simple way to find partners we can try working with our partners in the Trade Commissioner Service not to put Danielle on the spot but maybe she can help if it's a fit for her, for BC companies and there's a few other organizations that can help make matches so sometimes it takes time but please send me an email and I'll try to help Great, thank you so much Andrew and I think Danielle is going to say something I want to add I'm more than happy to help as well Andrew and I we worked together previously so just let us know She's very helpful I can tell you that Great and I think we have one more question regarding IRAP so with the movement towards Truth and Reconciliation is there plan to include Indigenous food companies within this program? That's a good question and I honestly I don't have background to give a full answer I can tell you we work a lot with food companies in general in IRAP whether it's it has to be incorporated so I'm not sure if the Indigenous food company is incorporated or not but please feel free to contact me and I'll do everything I can to help with that and we'll make sure that we share your contact details Andrew thanks and I think last question that we have is the list of most important trade shows in Germany so I guess again might be Daniella or Andreas who could provide info on that Sure certainly from the trade commission service trade shows that we are actively working on and our supporting participation at would be available on our website with information if you're looking at a specific sector please contact us and I'm sure the responsible trade commission would have a list ready to send you Great, thanks Andreas and I think we are running a bit out of time I see that we might have some questions coming but please be patient we'll make sure that we'll follow up with you if we have not answered them already and in the interest of time we are going to close the session and I just wanted to thank you all speakers and thanks for everyone for attending today's webinar doing business in Germany market and collaborative opportunities for BC companies and please keep your eyes open for the follow up email with presentations and contact information and our speakers thank you for joining us today and have a great rest of your day