{"id":837072,"date":"2026-07-31T00:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/837072\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:48:09","slug":"ottawa-launches-strategic-exports-office-as-it-gets-hands-on-with-deal-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/837072\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa launches strategic exports office as it gets hands-on with deal-making"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Although Ottawa already has a number of tools to help companies source foreign deals and to facilitate exports, Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu says the new strategic exports office will allow for better co-ordination and provide a platform for personalized deal-making.Sammy Kogan\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The federal government is becoming increasingly hands-on in brokering international deals for Canadian companies as part of its broader effort to diversify trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu formalized this approach with the launch of a \u201cstrategic exports office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The office, which was first announced in the fall budget, will be housed inside Global Affairs Canada and act as a hub for identifying and advancing international deals for companies in \u201cstrategic sectors,\u201d including aerospace, defence, nuclear energy and infrastructure. <\/p>\n

Mr. Sidhu also announced a new 14-member \u201cstrategic exports advisory council,\u201d which includes, among others, Scotiabank chief executive Scott Thomson, Manulife CEO Philip Witherington, Bombardier CEO \u00c9ric Martel, Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel, and De Havilland owner Sherry Brydson (Ms. Brydson is a shareholder of Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the owner of The Globe and Mail).<\/p>\n

Ottawa already has a number of tools to help companies source foreign deals and to facilitate exports. Export Development Canada provides trade financing, the Trade Commissioner Service provides market intelligence and makes connections on the ground, and the Canadian Commercial Corporation helps Canadian companies sell to foreign governments. <\/p>\n

After one year under Carney, results on trade diversification are mixed<\/a><\/p>\n

But Mr. Sidhu argued that the new strategic exports office will allow for better co-ordination between these bodies, and provide a platform for the kind of personalized deal-making that\u2019s becoming increasingly important in a world of shifting supply chains and aggressive industrial policy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just look at France as an example, their advocacy efforts are better co-ordinated. You know, President Macron will intercept deals many times over,\u201d Mr. Sidhu said at the office\u2019s launch event at MDA Space headquarters in Brampton, Ont. \u201cAnd so, if it\u2019s me on the world stage or it\u2019s another minister, we want to make sure that they\u2019re well equipped for these commercial advocacy efforts as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr. Sidhu pointed to a handful of recent deals that he said came together through the co-ordinated efforts of the company and Global Affairs Canada \u2013 sometimes with a direct assist from Prime Minister Mark Carney. These included CAE\u2019s sale of flight simulators to Malaysia Airlines Group and Airbus Canada\u2019s deal to supply 150 A220 jets to Malaysia\u2019s AirAsia. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a collective team effort that brought this deal over the line,\u201d Mr. Sidhu said of the Airbus Canada deal. \u201cIn the fall last year, I was with the Prime Minister in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit where we met with the [AirAsia] CEO Tony Fernandes to help push for this deal to come through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space, which makes satellites and other space technology, said that the global trade environment has changed, and international deal-making increasingly involves broader economic and geopolitical considerations. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery country right now wants to do the same things: To increase sovereignty, increase defence and security, increase their industrial base and economic prosperity, and increase international trade,\u201d Mr. Greenley, who is on the new advisory council, said in an interview after the announcement. <\/p>\n

Financing demand in global trade markets grows as Canadian companies diversify amid tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo as soon as you start that conversation, it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, you know, I could help you with that deal. But what can you help me with?\u2019 And so we need things like the [strategic exports office] and the government to be leaning forward in order to help us in that quid pro quo trade.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new office will be staffed by employees from Global Affairs, the Trade Commissioner Service and EDC, who will work on \u201cdeal teams\u201d and help \u201ccurate and manage a pipeline of major export opportunities,\u201d the government said. Alison Nankivell, CEO of EDC, said that Ottawa is looking to France, Germany, Japan and South Korea as models. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really bringing our best companies, our best industries, where we\u2019re most globally competitive: nuclear, areas of defence, areas of energy \u2026 and taking some of the best approaches we have seen others deploy,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause what you\u2019re looking at globally is everyone is getting much more proactive in their industrial policy and their advocacy for their best companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new office is one part of a larger push by Ottawa to try to double non-U.S. exports \u2013 an increase of around $300-billion annually \u2013 over the next decade to reduce the country\u2019s vulnerability to U.S. protectionism. The federal government has ramped up efforts to sign new trade deals, promised some $6-billion for trade-related infrastructure, and begun overhauling the regulatory and financing ecosystem for export-oriented energy and mining projects. <\/p>\n

There are some early signs that Canada is diversifying its trade away from the United States. In May, the share of total Canadian exports heading to the U.S. was roughly 70 per cent \u2013 down from an average of 76 per cent in 2024. <\/p>\n

Most of the diversification story to date has been about commodities. The high price of gold has dramatically boosted the value of exports to the United Kingdom, while more Canadian oil is being shipped to Asian markets through the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Of the sectors facing steep U.S. tariffs, the aluminum industry is the only one that has had much success moving products to overseas markets, mainly in Europe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Although Ottawa already has a number of tools to help companies source foreign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,20739,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-837072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","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-ottawa","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\/837072","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=837072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}