Trade and gender: The Canada-Belgium story

Two-way Canadian merchandise trade with Belgium averaged $8.2 billion annually during 2018 and 2019. This was up 51.2% compared to 2016 – the last full-year before preferential tariff treatment under CETA was put into force in 2017.

In 2019, Canada exported $3,219 million in goods to Belgium and imported $4,964 million worth of goods.

In Canada, 13,394 jobs are directly or indirectly supported by merchandise exports to Belgium. Women hold 4,222 of these jobs.

Top 5 industries

Jobs held by women that are directly or indirectly supported by goods exports to Belgium:

• Wholesale trade: 534
• Finance and insurance: 361
• Professional, scientific, and technical services: 358
• Crop and animal production: 330
• Retail trade: 306

The number of Canadian businesses exporting goods to the Belgium in 2019 was 1,242, while the number of Canadian businesses importing goods from the Belgium was 4,699.

Women-owned and equally owned businesses in 2017:

• Export value: 11.5%
• Import value: 16.2%
• Exporters: 20.5%
• Importers: 24.7%

Men-owned businesses in 2017:

• Export value: 88.5%
• Import value: 83.8%
• Exporters: 79.5%
• Importers: 75.3%

Women-owned and equally owned Canadian businesses make up a larger portion of imports than exports, both by number of importers and value.

Notes: Women-, men- and equally owned businesses refer to Canadian-controlled private corporations. The reported fractions are of those for which data on gender of ownership are available.

Direct jobs: Initial trade transactions support jobs directly.

Indirect Jobs: Additional jobs supported indirectly due to an increase in business-to-business (e.g. supply chain) transactions that result from the initial trade.

Sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database 2017, Trade by Exporter Characteristics 2017, Trade by Importer Characteristics 2017 and Canadian Merchandise Trade Database 2019.