Trade and gender: The Canada-Spain story

Two-way Canadian merchandise trade with Spain averaged $5.1 billion annually during 2018 and 2019. This was up 21.6% compared to 2016 – the last full year before preferential tariff treatment under CETA was put into force in 2017.

In 2019, Canada exported $1,504 million in goods to Spain and imported $3,496 million worth of goods.

In Canada, 6,520 jobs are directly or indirectly supported by merchandise exports to Spain. Women hold 2,036 of these jobs.

Top 5 industries

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

• Wholesale trade: 208
• Crop and animal production: 191
• Finance and insurance: 188
• Transportation and warehousing: 187
• Professional, scientific and technical services: 156

The number of Canadian businesses exporting goods to the Spain in 2019 was 1,389, while the number of Canadian businesses importing goods from the Spain was 7,867.

Women-owned and equally owned businesses in 2017:

• Export value: 6.0%
• Import value: 16.5%
• Exporters: 17.2%
• Importers: 27.3%

Men-owned businesses in 2017:

• Export value: 94.0%
• Import value: 83.5%
• Exporters: 82.8%
• Importers: 72.7%

Women-owned and equally owned Canadian businesses make up a much 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.