Ottawa, September 26, 2025 – The Europe Today: Indonesia and Canada have signed a landmark trade agreement, providing broad preferential access for Indonesian products to the Canadian market in the first comprehensive deal between the two countries.
The Indonesia–Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (ICA-CEPA) was signed on Wednesday in Ottawa by Indonesia’s Trade Minister Budi Santoso and Canada’s Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu, in the presence of President Prabowo Subianto and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trade Minister Santoso described the agreement as a milestone, marking Indonesia’s first comprehensive trade pact with a North American nation and Canada’s first with a Southeast Asian partner. “ICA-CEPA ushers in a new chapter in our economic ties. It opens wider market access and strengthens the competitiveness of Indonesian products and services in Canada,” he said on Thursday in Jakarta.
Under the deal, more than 90 percent of Indonesian products—covering some 6,573 tariff lines—will enjoy preferential access to Canada. Key exports expected to benefit include textiles, footwear, furniture, processed foods, light electronics, automotive components, and bird’s nests. Several items, such as seafood, natural fiber handicrafts, household appliances, granite, and marble, will enter Canada with zero tariffs immediately.
In return, Indonesia will open 85.54 percent of its market, or about 9,764 tariff lines, to Canadian products including frozen beef, wheat, potatoes, seafood, and processed foods.
Santoso stressed that the agreement goes beyond tariff reductions, creating opportunities for Indonesian entrepreneurs and start-ups to expand in Canada, while offering Canadian investors greater avenues for partnerships in Indonesia. “This signing is just the beginning. Our next task is to ensure the agreement delivers real benefits to communities, businesses, and investors,” he noted.
Bilateral trade between January and July 2025 reached $2.72 billion, a 30 percent increase from $2.09 billion in the same period last year. Indonesia exported $1.01 billion worth of goods to Canada, while imports totaled $1.71 billion, led by wheat, fertilizers, soybeans, wood pulp, and gold.
