{"id":824188,"date":"2026-07-25T00:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T00:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824188\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T00:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T00:26:09","slug":"canada-and-uae-sign-free-trade-deal-signal-investment-deals-in-energy-sector-very-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824188\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada and UAE sign free trade deal, signal investment deals in energy sector \u2018very soon\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

United Arab Emirates’ Minister of Foreign Trade Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, left, and Canada’s Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu attend a business roundtable in Toronto on Friday.Sammy Kogan\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates expects to announce investments in Canada\u2019s energy sector \u201cvery soon,\u201d its foreign trade minister said Friday at a signing ceremony marking the conclusion of negotiations on a free trade deal between the two countries. <\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Minister of International Trade, Maninder Sidhu, and UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi met at Toronto\u2019s Four Seasons Hotel to announce that they have reached a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) after several rounds of accelerated talks. <\/p>\n

Leaders from the two countries agreed to negotiate a CEPA<\/a> when Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Abu Dhabi in November last year. <\/p>\n

The CEPA is intended to cut tariffs, remove trade barriers and expand market access to the UAE for Canadian exporters. The agreement still has to go through legal review, a final signing and ratification before it comes into force.<\/p>\n

National Bank opens Dubai office as Canada aims to expand trade ties with UAE<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s expanding relationship with the UAE is an early litmus test for Mr. Carney\u2019s attempts to attract more foreign investment, and to expand trade relationships abroad to reduce reliance on the United States. <\/p>\n

In November, Mr. Carney secured a pledge from the UAE to invest $70-billion in Canada<\/a>. That has yet to happen, as officials from the Gulf state look for shovel-ready projects, but many of Canada\u2019s proposed initiatives have not yet advanced that far and Ottawa is trying speed up the timelines to approve infrastructure and energy projects. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur investment agreement gives investors the certainty they need to write those cheques,\u201d Mr. Sidhu said. <\/p>\n

The war in Iran, which has spilled out into the wider Gulf region, delayed the start of Canada\u2019s free-trade talks with the UAE. But Mr. Sidhu and Dr. Al Zeyoudi each emphasized how fast the negotiations have progressed since then, taking 47 days to complete.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney and UAE President Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan previously signed a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), which is often a precursor to a full-fledged trade agreement when Mr. Carney visited last year. <\/p>\n

On Friday, Dr. Al Zeyoudi told reporters that there has been \u201cvery positive progress and negotiation and discussion\u201d about the potential projects that could attract investment from the UAE\u2019s largest sovereign wealth funds. <\/p>\n

The state-owned oil company ADNOC \u2013 the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company \u2013 has led some of those discussions. The talks are \u201cgoing very well, and we\u2019re expecting some announcement very soon to come out from the energy sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sidhu said Dr. Al Zeyoudi has said that representatives from \u201ca majority\u201d of the UAE\u2019s sovereign wealth funds will attend the Canada Investment Summit<\/a>, a two-day meeting of senior business leaders scheduled for mid-September in Toronto that the federal government will co-host with major Canadian pension funds.<\/p>\n

The leaders of UAE investment funds \u201cwant to seize those opportunities, but as you know, billion-dollar deals don\u2019t happen over one handshake,\u201d Mr. Sidhu said. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Carney\u2019s values-free foreign policy is on display in the UAE<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Al Zeyoudi said \u201cthe discussions are moving, and we\u2019re going to announce it at the right time.\u201d He added that the September investment summit \u201cis going to be another platform where we\u2019re going to announce some of those partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples of the discussions Dr. Al Zeyoudi cited as under way included global logistics giant DP World Ltd. exploring new investments, and advanced conversations taking place about minerals. <\/p>\n

Following Friday\u2019s announcement, officials gathered for a round table meeting hosted by the Canada-UAE Business Council in a hotel ballroom next door. The council is co-chaired by former Quebec premier Jean Charest and ADNOC\u2019s chief executive officer of upstream Musabbeh Al Kaabi. <\/p>\n

The business delegation attending the meeting included Canadian companies such as National Bank of Canada, which sponsored the gathering and opened an office in Dubai<\/a> earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney\u2019s government has set goals to double non-U.S. exports within a decade, expanding annual sales overseas by $300-billion, and is aiming to draw $500-billion of new private-sector investment to Canada over five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: United Arab Emirates’ Minister of Foreign Trade Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-824188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}