ASEAN-Canada dialogue relationship was established in February 1977. In 1981, the ASEAN-Canada Economic Cooperation Agreement (ACECA) was signed, laying the grounds for industrial, commercial, and technical cooperation between the two sides. In the past decade, Canada ranked as the 9th largest trading partner among ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners for most of the time. Accroding to preliminary ASEAN statistics, the total merchandise trade value reached USD 17.1 billion in 2019 marking an 8.8% increase from the previous year. Based on Canadian statistics, the total two-way merchandise trade reached USD 20.5 billion in 2019. The stock of Canadian foreign direct investmen in ASEAN amounted to USD 13.2 billion while the stock of ASEAN foreign direct investment in Canada was at USD 396 million. As a group, ASEAN represents Canada’s sixth-largest trading partner (2018). 

On 2 October 2011, ASEAN and Canada signed the Joint Declaration on Trade and Investment (JDTI) which guides economic engagement between ASEAN-Canada. Since then, three five-year Work Plans had been endorsed to implement the JDTI. The current JDTI Work Plan will expire this year, while the 2021-2025 JDTI Work Plan was endorsed on 29 September 2020 setting out cooperation activities for the next five years. The highlights of implementation of the JDTI Work Plan is reported regularly to the Ministers at AEM-Canada Consultations by the Senior Economic Officials (SEOM). 

During the 5th AEM-Canada Consultations in August 2016, ASEAN and Canada agreed to establish a Trade Policy Dialogue (TPD) to discuss and enhance mutual understanding on specific economic issues. There have been four TPDs conducted since then.