ASEAN Delegation Wraps up First Trade Visit to Canada

The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, ...thanked the delegates from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) who travelled to Canada to see first-hand the opportunities available to grow the Canada-ASEAN trade and investment partnership. Ministers, high-ranking officials and business representatives from the 10-nation economic bloc visited Vancouver and Toronto for five days to witness Canada’s expertise in transportation infrastructure, strong banking and financial services, energy, manufacturing and high technology...

Quick Facts

  • With over 600 million people, ASEAN is composed of 10 Southeast Asian countries—Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—representing multiple key markets identified by Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan.
  • In 2013, bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and ASEAN countries grew by 7.3 percent over 2012 and totalled almost $17 billion, an increase of more than 30 percent during the last five years.
  • In August 2012, Canada launched the Canada-ASEAN Business Council (CABC) to grow trade and investment ties. The CABC held the first Canada-ASEAN Business Forum in Singapore in October 2013.
  • ASEAN has long been a key partner of Canada’s in the Asia-Pacific region. Canada marks 37 years as an ASEAN Dialogue Partner in 2014, making the country one of the association’s longest-standing partners.

This has been excerpted from 5 June 2014 news release by Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, and is available in its entirety at http://www.international.gc.ca/media/comm/news-communiques/2014/06/05a.aspx?lang=eng