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. According to ASEAN’s preliminary statistics, ASEAN-Canada two-way trade was recorded at USD 23.4 billion in 2024, up from USD 20.3 billion in 2023. In terms of investment, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow from Canada was valued at USD 4.9 billion in 2024, a significant rebound from 2023, when Canada recorded a negative investment of USD 2.2 billion. As a group, ASEAN represents Canada’s sixth-largest trading partner.

Joint Declaration between ASEAN and Canada on Trade and Investment (JDTI) was signed on 2 October 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Since then, three 5-year Work Plans have been endorsed to implement the JDTI, i.e. the 2012-2015 Work Plan (endorsed at the 1st AEM-Canada Consultations on 31 August 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia), the 2016-2020 Work Plan (endorsed at the 4th AEM-Canada Consultation on 25 August 2015, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), and the 2021-2025 Work Plan to implement JDTI (endorsed by 9th AEM-Canada Consultations on 29 August 2020).

Following the conclusion of the ASEAN-Canada JDTI for 2021-2025, the 14th AEM-Canada Consultation will endorse the ASEAN-Canada JDTI Work Plan for 2026-2030. This Work Plan serves as a guiding document for officials in implementing the ASEAN-Canada JDTI, which aims to strengthen commercial ties and deepen economic cooperation between ASEAN and Canada.

Since the launch of the ACAFTA negotiation in November 2021 during the 10th AEM-Canada Consultation, a total of 15 ACAFTA Meetings have been convened, comprising of 14 regular rounds and 1 special round. The most recent meeting, the 14th ACAFTA TNC Meeting and Subsidiary Bodies Meetings, were held from 7-11 July 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. According to the analysis conducted by ASEAN, it shows that the impact of an agreement which includes goods liberalisation, a reduction of NTMs and improvements to trade facilitation would increase ASEAN’s GDP by USD 39.4 billion, or equivalent to 1.6 percent increase, and Canada’s GDP by USD 5.1 billion, or equivalent to 0.3 percent increase. Likewise, an agreement would increase ASEAN’s exports to Canada by USD 3.36 billion, equivalent to 18.7 percent increase, and Canadian exports to ASEAN by USD 3.18 billion, equivalent to 26.5 percent increase.