Prime Minister Mark Carney concluded negotiations for a free trade pact with the Philippines in Manila, capping a week in which Canada pushed to diversify beyond the United States. Carney met Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on the sidelines of the 49th ASEAN Summit, and the deal is about six months away from being signed.
Why it matters
The numbers are modest but the direction is clear. Total trade between the two countries stood at about 2.4 billion dollars in 2025, and the deal will drop over 90 percent of tariff lines, covering areas from agriculture to aerospace to artificial intelligence. The broader ASEAN deal in the works covers a market of nearly 700 million people and an economy worth close to 6 trillion dollars.
The context is the trade war with the United States, which has ruptured what was once one of the closest economic partnerships in the world. Canada has spent the year looking for new markets, and the Philippines deal is the most concrete result so far. The strategy treats diversification as a necessity, and the Manila announcement is the proof that the strategy is producing deals.
What happens next
The tour continues with purpose. Carney next heads to Phnom Penh for a Francophonie summit before travelling north for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Shenzhen, where he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Each stop adds another piece to a trade map that no longer runs only through Washington.
For now, the Philippines deal is the headline and the ASEAN talks are the bigger prize. The ASEAN Canada agreement is expected to add nearly 2 billion dollars to Canada gross domestic product and create around 14,000 jobs once implemented. The week in Manila showed that Canada can still open doors, even while its biggest one stays half closed.
The deal also shows how trade policy has become the centre of Canadian politics. The prime minister has staked his government on diversification, and the Philippines agreement is the first proof that the strategy can deliver. The opposition will ask whether a deal worth 2.4 billion dollars in trade is enough to matter, and the government will answer that the ASEAN talks are the bigger prize. The debate will continue, but the Manila announcement gives the government something concrete to defend.
