By L.Kenway BComm CPB Retired
This is the year you get all your ducks in a row! Start by starting ... and keep it simple. Consistency beats perfection.
Published August 20, 2026 | Updated August 27, 2026
WHAT'S IN THIS ARTICLE
Introduction | Trade Deals At A Glance | What This Means For Your Business | Understanding Stage 5 Ratification | Trade Deal Tracker | What Changed Recently | Appendix | Acronyms Used | References
BACK TO >> Navigating Change During Uncertainty
RELATED >> Why Canada Is Changing Its Trade Strategy | Six Stages of A Trade Deal
Prime Minister Carney's government counts 20 'deals' on 5 continents signed since taking office in 2025.Prime Minister Carney has repeatedly said that his government has signed 20 “economic and security deals” since taking office in 2025. That number gets repeated often, but it hides more than it reveals ... a signed, in-force trade agreement is a completely different thing from a framework that names future goals, and both are different again from a defence or investment pact.
I'm writing this article for two reasons.
First, I wanted to know what the actual deals were. Because I could not find an official list of the 20, I had to dig around and pull information from various sources to create the list. I believe the 20 I've identified are the deals Carney was referring to.
Second, I wanted to test whether these trips produced agreements with real teeth, or were they just photo ops and memorandums of understanding. So alongside counting the deals, I decided to track the status of each deal for a more complete picture.
Once I started counting, I ran into a problem. The Carney government has been busy, and the list of deals at various stages kept growing while I was writing. So instead of picking one date and freezing the count, I settled on tracking these 20 deals as my baseline. Any deal identified after that point is marked with a + so you can tell the original 20 apart from what's been added since.
As you read the trade deal tracker, you may notice more than one CEPA, or more than one CPTPP accession.
One final point. I've included a few non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In international diplomacy, an MOU is almost never the final destination. It is the catalyst designed to spark something else. So MOUs are sometimes the equivalent to a 🔴 Diplomatic Outreach.
Signed And In Force
1. Canada-Indonesia CEPA
2. UAE FIPA
3. UK-CPTPP Accession +
In Negotiation
4. Canada-UAE CEPA +
5. Costa Rica-CPTPP Accession +
6. Canada–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (CUKFTA)
7. Canada–Philippines Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)
8. Canada–ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (ACAFTA)
9. Canada–Thailand Free Trade Agreement (CTFTA)
10. Canada–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
11. Canada–India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (India CEPA)
12. Canada–Turkiye (formerly Turkey) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) +
Strategic Partnership Frameworks
13. Canada–EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of the Future
14. Canada-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
15. Australia–Canada–India Technology & Innovation (ACITI) Partnership +
16. Canada–Mexico Action Plan 2025–2028
17. Canada–Qatar Strategic Investment and Economic Partnership
18. Canada–Saudi Arabia Strategic Framework & Investment Partnership +
19. Canada–Philippines Strategic Partnership Framework
20. China Interim Tariff Reset
21. India-Cameco Uranium Deal +
22. Canada-Spain Sovereign AI Deal +
23. Canada-India Economic and Financial Dialogue +
Defence, Security & Sector Cooperation
24. South Korea – Security and Defence Cooperation Partnership
25. South Korea – Critical Minerals/Future Mobility MOU
26. Australia – Over-the-Horizon Radar Partnership
27. Australia – Critical Minerals Cooperation
28. Norway – Joint Statement on Strategic Cooperation
29. Ireland – Joint Statement on Advancing the Canada-Ireland Partnership
30. Canada–Qatar ICT Cooperation MOU +
31. Canada–Germany Sovereign Technology Alliance +
32. Canada–Spain AI Cooperation MOU +
33. Canada–UAE AI/Emerging-Technology Cooperation +
34. Poland-Marconi Radio Deal +
New Multilateral Institutions
1. G7 Critical Minerals (Resilience and) Production Alliance +
2. Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) +
3. SAFE (Security Action for Europe) +
It's tempting to read the list below as five real wins (🤝 or 💼) and fifteen+ placeholders. That undersells what's actually happening in my opinion.
Frameworks, negotiations, and cooperation pacts are how deals get built. Governments open the door, set the terms of engagement, and signal where they want capital and trade to flow next. But no government signs a contract on a business's behalf. Indonesia's CEPA and the UAE's FIPA didn't start as finished agreements either; they started exactly where Saudi Arabia and Qatar are now.
The groundwork matters because it's the only way the next five 'signed and in force' items get created ... but only if businesses actually show up and use them. The type of agreement tells you how ready an opportunity is today, not whether it's worth watching.
In this tracker, I am going to use 🤝 to mean the government deal is in force and 💼 to indicate the commercial deal is in force.
Every trade deal moves through six stages: Diplomatic Outreach, Framework, Negotiation, Signing, Ratification, and Implementation. But not every agreement moves through all six stages in exactly the same way. Not all international agreements follow a legislative path. Let's see which ones bypass the ratification process and why:
But be aware, not all agreements with the term Partnership in them can bypass ratification. Why? Because they are really FTAs in disguise. Two examples of this are CPTPP and CETA.
That's why you will see different combinations of ✍️ Signing, ✅ Ratification, and 🟢 Implementation dates in the tracker. The dates show what actually happened for each commitment rather than forcing every agreement into an identical sequence.
🔴 1. Diplomatic Outreach 🟡 2. Framework 🟠 3. Negotiation
✍️ 4. Signing ✅ 5. Ratification 🟢 6. Implementation
JUMP TO >> Signed & In Force | In Negotiation | Strategic Partners | Defence & Security | New Multilateral Institutions
This tracker, which I originally created as a simple list, has become much more useful. It sorts all 20 (and counting) by what kind of commitment each one actually is, not by which country it's with, so you can see at a glance what's usable today and what's still a promise.
What I noticed putting this together was that the tracker is making the scale and coordination of the work much easier to see than a conventional list of trade agreements does. The amount of work being done, and the speed at which it is being done, is jaw dropping to me when presented in this format.
This is where a government-to-government agreement has changed the rules for all Canadian businesses trading with a particular country: lower tariffs, guaranteed market access, or investor protections written into law.
That's a different thing from a signed commercial contract like the India-Cameco uranium deal or the Poland-Marconi radio deal. Those are real, in-force agreements too (🟢), but they're deals between one company and one buyer. They don't change the rules for anyone else. You'll find them listed under the partnership or sector they grew out of, not here, because there's nothing in them for a business that isn't Cameco or Marconi to act on.
Here are the items on this list a business can act on today. Watch for it to grow over the coming year.
Talks are underway, with real terms being worked out ... but nothing is signed yet. Every deal here is working toward a full FTA or CEPA: broad tariff cuts and market access. They're not there yet, but that's the destination.
Talks are underway, with real terms being worked out ... but nothing is signed yet.
Trade negotiations don't usually mean that ministers have simply agreed to start talking. Formal negotiations are organized into rounds, where negotiating teams meet for a defined period to work through specific chapters of the agreement or issues.
That distinction matters when reading the tracker. Governments can be having diplomatic conversations or doing preliminary work behind the scenes without having formally entered the negotiation stage.
For example: Canada and the Philippines are targeting an FTA conclusion by the end of 2026, but the status of the talks matters more than the target date. Likewise, Canada and the United States can be discussing the future of CUSMA before formal negotiations have actually begun.
A target date isn't the same thing as a 🟠 negotiation round.
A strategic partnership framework isn't one thing. It's whatever doesn't rise to the level of a comprehensive trade agreement. Most are exactly what the name suggests: two governments agreeing on areas to cooperate (trade, energy, defence) without committing to binding terms yet. An agreement to keep talking rather than the deal itself.
A few in this section go further. Canada's partnership with the EU already comes with access to a specific €150-billion procurement fund. The China tariff reset already changed real tariff rates. The Cameco contract is already a signed, binding $2.6-billion sale. What none of these has is the breadth of an FTA or CEPA: broad, economy-wide tariff cuts and market access across many sectors at once. They're real, sometimes binding, commitments, just narrow ones, carved out of a single sector or program rather than a whole trading relationship.
Despite South Africa's G20 investment talks, nuclear cooperation, G7 critical minerals endorsement, few actual trade initiatives have emerged.
These remain the least concrete deals on the list, per Globe and Mail reporting [24].
This section is about real, active cooperation. These are agreements built around one specific domain, defence, security, a named technology, rather than an entire bilateral relationship. They don't touch tariffs or market access, but unlike a broad framework, they're usually operational quickly because there's only one thing to coordinate.
Everything above this section is Canada plus one other country. This section is different. It's Canada joining, or building, a standing institution with its own membership that other countries join too.
PM Carney has a name for this pattern: "variable geometry." At Davos in January 2026, he described building "coalitions that work, issues by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together," rather than one all-purpose alliance.
What this section is not:
What it is: Canada pooling money, coordinating action, or buying into standing capacity, alongside a growing list of other countries, none of which changes a tariff or opens a market on its own.

On July 6, 2026, Germany's TKMS (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems) was named preferred bidder for Canada's largest-ever defence procurement (up to 12 new submarines). TKMS beat out South Korea's Hanwha. A KPMG analysis, commissioned by Hanwha, said the bigger economic package would deliver roughly $70 billion in economic effects and more than 22,000 jobs a year through 2044.
NATO alliance priorities and Arctic operational synergies outweighed the alternative competitive bid, despite a robust industrial and delivery proposal from South Korea. It's my understanding that TKMS already builds the Type 212CD submarine platform Canada selected with Norway, giving Germany an established production relationship Canada could plug into directly.
This wasn't a weak relationship losing to a strong one. It was two strong relationships, and a contract this size comes down to more than the relationship alone. Here, NATO and European defence integration carried more weight.
Why have I not listed this in the trade deal tracker?
'Preferred bidder' is a procurement status, not a negotiation stage in the trade-deal sense. It reflects a competitive process where Canada selected a winning supplier, not two governments negotiating a bilateral text.
'Preferred bidder' status isn't a signed deal. The formal contract award isn't expected until around 2028. If contract negotiations with TKMS don't go well, Canada could turn back to Hanwha.
Sources: [39, Globe and Mail], [40, Korea JoongAng Daily], [41, Defense News], [42, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada]
The following acronyms will be referred to in this article. I know it sounds like a foreign language but this should help you sort it out. For assistance with definitions, please see the site glossary. I tried to make the glossary user friendly by grouping the terms by situation.
Trade Agreement Types
Named Bilateral & Regional Deals
Defence & Security
Regional & International Bodies
Sector & Institutional
|
Currency & Other
|
|
[1] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney announces new trade agreement with Indonesia." pm.gc.ca, September 24, 2025; Global Affairs Canada. Canada-Indonesia CEPA: Summary of benefits and negotiated outcomes. February 2025.
[2] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney secures new agreements with the United Arab Emirates to expand trade and attract new investment into Canada." pm.gc.ca, November 21, 2025.
[3] Global Affairs Canada. "Official agreement and side instruments: United Kingdom's Accession to the CPTPP." July 3, 2026.
[4] Global Affairs Canada. "Canada and United Arab Emirates conclude Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations." Canada.ca, July 24, 2026.
[5] Global Affairs Canada. "Costa Rica's Accession to the CPTPP: Summary of Negotiated Outcomes." international.gc.ca, May 5, 2026.
[6] Global Affairs Canada. "Minister Sidhu announces Canada's ratification of the United Kingdom's CPTPP Accession Protocol." July 3, 2026.
[7] BBC News. "UK halts trade negotiations with Canada over hormones in beef ban." January 25, 2024.
[8] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney announces new partnerships with the Philippines in trade, energy, defence, and tourism." pm.gc.ca, July 2, 2026.
[9] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney advances new trade, economic, and security partnerships with ASEAN nations." pm.gc.ca, October 27, 2025.
[10] Global Affairs Canada. "Canada's objectives for negotiations for a Canada-Thailand Free Trade Agreement." February 13, 2026.
[11] Global Affairs Canada. "Canada-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement." June 1, 2026.
[12] MercoPress. "Colombia and Venezuela will seek full Mercosur membership, Petro says." March 16, 2026.
[13] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney secures ambitious new partnership with India focused on energy, talent, and technology." pm.gc.ca, March 2, 2026.
[14] Prime Minister of Canada. "Joint statement on the launch of FTA negotiations between Canada and Türkiye." pm.gc.ca, July 7, 2026.
[15] Prime Minister of Canada. "Canada announces new, strengthened partnership with the European Union." pm.gc.ca, June 23, 2025.
[16] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney forges new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Japan across defence, energy, trade, and technology." pm.gc.ca, March 6, 2026.
[17] Prime Minister of Canada. "Joint statement by the Government of Canada, the Government of Australia, and the Government of India." pm.gc.ca, November 22, 2025.
[18] Prime Minister of Canada. "Joint statement by Prime Minister Carney and President Sheinbaum." pm.gc.ca, September 18, 2025.
[19] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney secures new partnership with Qatar to increase trade, investment, and defence cooperation." pm.gc.ca, January 18, 2026.
[20] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney and the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman commit to deepening bilateral engagement and economic cooperation." pm.gc.ca, July 9, 2026.
[21] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney announces new partnerships with the Philippines in trade, energy, defence, and tourism." pm.gc.ca, July 2, 2026.
[22] Global Affairs Canada. "Backgrounder - Preliminary Joint Arrangement on Addressing Bilateral Economic and Trade Issues between Canada and the People's Republic of China." international.gc.ca, January 16, 2026.
[23] Indra Group. "Indra Group Joins Forces With Cohere To Drive International Cooperation in Sovereign AI Between Spain and Canada." globenewswire.com, May 20, 2026.
[24] Reporting on Canada-South Africa cooperation announced at the G20 Summit, Johannesburg, November 2025.
[25] Global Affairs Canada. Joint statement: Canada–Republic of Korea Foreign and Defence (2+2) Ministerial Meeting. February 25, 2026.
[26] Natural Resources Canada. "Canada and the Republic of Korea deepen co-operation on energy resources and critical minerals." June 2, 2026.
[27] National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces. "Canada–Australia Partnership on Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar." canada.ca, June 22, 2026.
[28] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney elevates partnership with Australia in critical minerals, defence, and artificial intelligence." pm.gc.ca, March 5, 2026.
[29] Prime Minister of Canada. "Joint statement on Strategic Cooperation between Canada and the Kingdom of Norway." pm.gc.ca, March 14, 2026; Natural Resources Canada. "Minister Tim Hodgson meets with Norway's Minister of Energy, Terje Aasland." Readout, February 19, 2026.
[30] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney expands Canada's partnership with Ireland across science, technology, and culture." pm.gc.ca, June 14, 2026.
[31] Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). "Canada and Germany sign AI joint declaration and launch Sovereign Technology Alliance." February 14, 2026.
[32] Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). "Minister Solomon, His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain and Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Cuerpo advance Canada–Spain artificial intelligence cooperation through new memorandum of understanding." May 20, 2026.
[33] Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). "Minister Solomon concludes successful visit to the Gulf to strengthen trade ties with the UAE and Qatar." canada.ca, October 15, 2025.
[34] Prime Minister of Canada. "Prime Minister Carney secures new partnerships in defence and critical minerals at the 2026 G7 Leaders' Summit." pm.gc.ca, June 17, 2026.
[35] Natural Resources Canada. "Canada unlocks 26 new investments and partnerships with 9 allied countries to secure critical minerals supply chains." canada.ca, October 31, 2025.
[36] Prime Minister of Canada. "Eight countries commit to supporting the Canada-led Defence, Security and Resilience Bank." pm.gc.ca, July 7, 2026.
[37] Council of the European Union. "SAFE: member states endorse agreement on the participation of Canada." consilium.europa.eu, December 19, 2025.
[38] CHEK News / The Canadian Press. "Carney's Saudi Arabia trip a 'high-water mark' for relations, business leader says." July 2026.
[39] The Globe and Mail. "Canada picks Germany's TKMS over South Korea's Hanwha to build submarine fleet." July 6, 2026.
[40] Korea JoongAng Daily. "Why Korea lost Canada's $42.3 billion submarine deal to Germany despite a bigger offer." July 8, 2026.
[41] Defense News. "Canada picks Germany's TKMS for historic submarine buy, in nod to Europe." July 7, 2026.
[42] Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. "What Ottawa's TKMS Submarine Decision Means for Canada and South Korea Ties." 2026.
[43] Department of Finance Canada. "Minister Champagne to welcome India's Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs to Canada to reinforce bilateral ties". Media advisory. August 21, 2026.
Author's Note: This article was developed from my research, notes, and ideas with AI-assisted drafting and editing. Because the trade deals tracked here were scattered across many sources and formats, AI played a larger role than normal in pulling together the scattered, varied information. I reviewed, corrected, and approved the final content. My thanks to my nephew, AP Kenway, for initially researching the eight additional trade deal updates as well as assisting in preparing the article for publication, and to my niece, SA Kenway, for researching and selecting the image(s).
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