St. Joseph could see changes in export and trade after an executive order signed Monday by President Trump.

Trump signed the order this week to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

According to President and CEO of the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Patt Lilly, St. Joseph is the third largest exporter as a community in the state of Missouri behind St. Louis and Kansas City. Lilly said some of the large companies here which have jobs related to export include Triumph Foods and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Lilly said at this point, it’s difficult to know how the executive order will impact St. Joseph’s export market.

“I know there’s been, through the election cycle, a lot of discussion, comment, concern, debate about trade, free trade, what does that mean, what does that look like,” Lilly said. “For St. Joseph, the opportunity to be part of the global marketplace has been very important. How you create that environment as a country to grow that export market is really the question. Anything you do with trade, in one way or another, will likely affect us here in St. Joseph because we have such a large export market.”

Lilly said he thinks the change could be good as long as businesses and labor benefit.

“Like with most things in the new administration, I think we just need to kind of wait and see how this new approach pans out,” Lilly said. “We’ll have to observe closely and hope that the new administration will take the appropriate role in enhancing and improving international trade and that the United States will see the benefit of that as well as our businesses.”