State trade fact sheets - Louisiana
Louisiana
Highlights
- 140 Canadian-owned businesses employ 8,604 workers in Louisiana
- Canada is the #1 customer for most states
- 76% of Canadian exports to the U.S. are raw materials, parts, and components used to create other goods in the United States
- Canada sells more to Louisiana than it sells to Norway

La Salle Lumber
In 2019, LaSalle Lumber Company opened the first new sawmill built in the state in more than two decades, bringing together two family-owned businesses that have been involved in the forest industry for generations.
The new, highly-automated sawmill, which employs 115 people, is a joint venture between Hunt Forest Products of Ruston, Louisiana, and Tolko Industries, Ltd., a Canadian company that produces a wide range of forest products for customers around the world. Along with skilled job opportunities, this partnership provides a local outlet for the abundant inventory of southern yellow pine.
Located in La Salle Parish, a region founded on forestry, this venture boosts the local economy while welcoming in a new generation of technology to the state’s lumber industry.
CGI Invests in Acadiana’s Talent
Montreal-based CGI has created more than 1,500 jobs by hiring workers and building state-of-the-art information technology (IT) facilities in small towns and non-metro areas across the United States. Nowhere has the strategy been more successful than in Louisiana.
In 2016, CGI opened a $13.1 million, 50,000 square foot onshore IT service center in Lafayette and remains an anchor tenant of the 143-acre Research Park of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The project also included a state-funded, 10-year, $4.5 million higher education initiative with a goal to triple the number of undergraduate degrees awarded annually by the University’s School of Computing and Informatics.
Today, Lafayette is one of seven small and mid-sized communities nationwide that have become partners in the success of CGI’s nationwide onshoring strategy.
Our Common Goals
The Canada–U.S. relationship is deeply rooted in our shared values, history and vision for the future. At the top of our priority list is ending the COVID-19 pandemic at home and abroad by strengthening efforts to control the pandemic, collaborating on public health responses, and building resilience against future outbreaks. We are working closely together to defeat the virus by responding to new variants, following expert advice, and supporting global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Along with combating COVID-19, we are committed to building back better, accelerating climate ambitions, advancing diversity and inclusion, bolstering security and defense, and building global alliances. Canada and the U.S. will continue to work together on these shared goals in the years to come.
Louisiana exports $3.5 billion in goods to Canada annually
Louisiana exports to Canada by industry
- Agriculture: 4%
- Chemicals: 20%
- Energy: 38%
- Equipment & machinery: 5%
- Plastics & rubbers: 28%
- Other: 5%
Louisiana imports $3.0 billion in goods from Canada annually
Louisiana imports from Canada by industry
- Agriculture: 9%
- Chemicals: 7%
- Energy: 41%
- Equipment & machinery: 9%
- Forest products: 4%
- Minerals & metals: 22%
- Plastics & rubbers: 3%
- Other: 5%
Top Louisiana goods exports to Canada
- Plastics & plastic articles: $914 million
- Fuel oil: $667 million
- Crude petroleum: $498 million
- Organic chemicals: $218 million
- Petroleum coke & bitumen: $150 million
- Inorganic chemicals: $93 million
- Rubber & rubber articles: $57 million
- Animal or vegetable fats, oils & waxes: $54 million
- Coffee, tea, & spices: $53 million
- Railway trains & rolling stock: $45 million
Top Louisiana goods imports from Canada
- Crude petroleum: $1.0 billion
- Aluminum & aluminum articles: $407 million
- Ores, slag & ash: $194 million
- Fuel oil: $170 million
- Animal or vegetable fats, oils & waxes: $136 million
- Fertilizers: $82 million
- Plastics & plastic articles: $79 million
- Engines & turbines: $62 million
- Wood & semi-finished wood products: $60 million
- Organic chemicals: $57 million
Louisiana exports $892 million in services to Canada annually
Top Louisiana services exports to Canada
- Transport: $518 million
- Business services: $135 million
- Charges for the use of intellectual property: $117 million
- Travel (including for eduction): $84 million
- Maintenance & repair services: $19 million
Connect to our team
For more information on Louisiana’s trade with Canada, please contact our trade team in Dallas.
April 2022
- Unless otherwise mentioned, all figures are based on 2021 data in U.S. dollars.
- U.S. Census Bureau: goods trade, Canada’s export ranking (2/2022 release).
- The Trade Partnership: 2019 services exports (estimated, 11/2021 release).
- Dun + Bradstreet: Canadian-owned businesses (3/2022 release).
- Figures may not add up due to rounding.