Premier David Eby is facing pressure to come back with deals as he prepares to lead a B.C. trade mission to India.

When Eby heads to India on Monday, he’ll be looking to diversify the province’s trade and reduce reliance on the United States.

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According to the head of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT, the trade mission couldn’t come at a more important time, as American tariffs hammer the province’s economy.

“Industries like forestry have been crippled … job losses, company losses, closures, and shutdowns,” said GVBOT President and CEO Bridgette Anderson.

“You think about the importance of softwood lumber to world markets and to India in particular, this comes at a really important time. There are also major LNG projects that are coming online, so getting that product out to global markets is really important.”

She tells CityNews that’s why Premier David Eby needs to come back to B.C. with deals.

“Deepening relationships is important, but having results is even more important. Businesses will be looking to the government to ensure that they are delivering on these kinds of trips.”

While international trade deals can take years to develop, Anderson says B.C. businesses can’t wait that long.

“We don’t have time; We have to act with urgency and intention, given what the United States is doing. We can not rely on the United States — everything needs to be done to diversify trade.”

Anderson says the business community is also looking to provincial government to take other measures to help the B.C. economy.

“Knowing that the B.C. budget is coming in six weeks, what is the B.C. government doing to spur economic growth? Whether it is through tax incentives like the PST exemption that helps companies reinvest in themselves, whether it is other measures to ensure companies can become more trade-enabled, it really does take a holistic approach.”

Federal government support is also needed, according to Samuel Roscoe, a business expert and assistant business education professor at the University of British Columbia.

“We have to ensure steps are being made to have a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with India,” said Roscoe.

“Canada and India don’t actually have a free trade agreement in place right now. It’s something that has been bandied about for a decade and then was put on hold in 2023 because of politics.”

Without a free trade agreement, Roscoe says Canadians businesses will continue to pay tariffs and duties for Indian imports and exports.

“But the urgency is not being felt by just B.C. India has also been impacted by U.S. trade tariffs, and they are also in a rush to set up trade agreements, as are Europe and the ASEAN nations,” he added.

“The U.S. has lit a fire under everybody’s trade negotiations. When you have trade negotiations that take 10 to 15 years, with all this urgency, I think that timeframe could be shrunk down to three to five years instead. I think that is one blessing of Donald Trump’s trade tariff policy.”