Brussels – Canada remains an important trading partner for the European Union. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, in 2025 the EU exported goods worth €48.8 billion to Canada, while imports stood at 33 billion. During the same period, the trade surplus – the positive difference between a country’s exports and imports – stood at 15.8 billion. Compared with 2024, exports (48.2 billion) increased by 1.2 per cent and imports (28 billion) by 18 per cent.
Between 2015 and 2017, trade in goods between the EU and Canada grew by an average of 4.7 per cent per year. Subsequently, between 2018 and 2025, the value of trade between the two partners rose from 54.2 to 81.8 billion, representing an average annual increase of 6.1 per cent. Over the same period, the value of exports rose by 4.8 per cent, while that of imports rose by 8.2 per cent.
In 2025, the main category of products exported by the EU to Canada was machinery and mechanical equipment, totalling €9.4 billion (equivalent to 19.3 per cent of total exports). This was followed by pharmaceutical products (€5.5 billion; 11.2 per cent), vehicles, cars and motorcycles (€5.4 billion; 11.1 per cent), electrical machinery and equipment (€3.3 billion; 6.7 per cent) and, finally, optical instruments – lenses, mirrors or prisms – photographic and medical equipment (€2 billion; 4.1 per cent).
As regards imports, the most significant product categories were ores, slag, and ash (€4 billion; 12.2 per cent of the total), followed by machinery and mechanical equipment (€3.8 billion; 11.4 per cent). These were followed by mineral fuels, oils, and distillation products (€3.1 billion; 9.4 per cent), aircraft and spacecraft (€2.9 billion; 8.9 per cent) and pharmaceutical products (€1.9 billion; 5.9 per cent).
Trade between the EU and Canada is facilitated by the CETA trade agreement. The agreement entered into force provisionally on 21 September 2017 and, to date, only 17 Member States have ratified it. The Member States that have yet to ratify it include: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Slovenia.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
