Trade and Gender: Mexico

Mexico has been Canada’s third-largest merchandise trade partner every year for more than a decade. In 2021, Mexico accounted for 3.4% of Canada’s total merchandise trade, totalling nearly $42 billion. Canada is Mexico’s sixth-largest merchandise trade partner, accounting for 1.8% of Mexico’s total merchandise trade in 2021.

In 2021, Canada exported $8.2 billion in merchandise to Mexico and imported $33.5 billion worth of merchandise.

In 2020 in Canada, 29,893 jobs were directly or indirectly supported by merchandise exports to Mexico. Of these, 9,091 were occupied by Canadian women.

Top 5 industries

In 2020, the top 5 industries employing Canadian women in jobs supported directly and indirectly by merchandise exports to Mexico were:

• Crop and animal production: 1,253 jobs
• Wholesale trade: 1,096 jobs
• Transportation equipment manufacturing: 807 jobs
• Finance and insurance: 659 jobs
• Professional, scientific and technical services: 589 jobs

The number of Canadian businesses exporting merchandise to Mexico, in 2021 was 1,739, and the number of Canadian businesses importing merchandise from Mexico, in 2021 was 16,315.

Ownership of Canadian Businesses Trading with Mexico, in 2018:

Women-owned and equally owned businesses*

• Export value: 6.2%
• Import value: 13.0%
• Exporters: 15.6%
• Importers: 23.9%

Men-owned businesses

• Export value: 93.8%%
• Import value: 87.0%
• Exporters: 84.4%
• Importers: 76.1%%

Women-owned and equally owned Canadian businesses trading with Mexico make up a larger proportion of merchandise importers than of merchandise exporters. They also account for a larger proportion of imports than exports by value.

*Notes:

• The term “equally owned business” is used in reference to one in which men and women each own 50%. The reported percentages are those for which data on ownership by gender are available.

Sources: Statistics Canada’s Canada and the World Statistics Hub – Mexico (2021), Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database (2018), Canadian Merchandise Trade Database (2021), Industry Accounts (2020), Trade by Exporter Characteristics (2021) and Trade by Importer Characteristics (2021).