Trade and gender: The Canada-Italy story

Two-way Canadian merchandise trade with Italy averaged $12.4 billion annually during 2018 and 2019. This was up 25.6% compared to 2016 — the last full-year before preferential tariff treatment under CETA was put into force in 2017.

In 2019, Canada exported $3,242 million in goods to Italy and imported $9,470 million worth of goods.

In Canada, 15,807 jobs are directly or indirectly supported by merchandise exports to Italy. Women hold 5,320 of these jobs.

Top 5 industries

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

• Chemical manufacturing: 724
• Wholesale trade: 621
• Crop and animal production: 528
• Professional, scientific, and technical services: 433
• Finance and insurance: 424

The number of Canadian businesses exporting goods to the Italy in 2019 was 1,749, while the number of Canadian businesses importing goods from the Italy was 20,194.

Women-owned and equally owned businesses in 2017:

• Export value: 13.0%
• Import value: 17.6%
• Exporters: 21.6%
• Importers: 25.8%

Men-owned businesses in 2017:

• Export value: 87.0%
• Import value: 82.4%
• Exporters: 78.4%
• Importers: 74.2%

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