Germany & Canada

Germany and Canada share a wide network of agreements and cooperation frameworks in the areas of trade, research, energy, hydrogen, raw materials, and digitalization. These collaborations form the foundation for a strategic partnership for the long-term future and demonstrate the countries’ like-mindedness. Among the most important pillars are CETA, Canada’s association with Horizon Europe, the double taxation treaty, the Youth Mobility Agreement, the SAFE program and bilateral partnerships in the fields of energy, critical raw materials, hydrogen, and artificial intelligence.

CETA has driven meaningful growth in German Canadian trade: two-way merchandise trade hit 30.5 billion CAD in 2025, a 61.1% increase from pre-CETA levels. This makes Germany Canada's largest EU trading partner and sixth largest worldwide. The agreement has eliminated roughly 98% of tariffs between the EU and Canada, significantly lowering costs for German exporters and importers. CETA also opened Canadian federal, provincial, and municipal procurement markets to German firms. Additionally, allowing service trade between the two countries to grow 73% over the same period.

In February 2026, Canada became the first non-European country to join the EU's Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program. Canadian defense firms now have preferential access to a $258 billion CAD low-interest loan program for joint defense procurement. As the EU's largest economy, committed to scaling defense investment toward 5% of GDP by 2035, Germany represents one of the largest pools of SAFE-funded procurement demand now open to Canadian suppliers.

The Canada-Germany Strategic Partnership Agreement, announced at the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, is a proposed bilateral framework designed to consolidate and deepen commercial, security, and diplomatic cooperation between the two nations under a unified umbrella. 

Because Germany is Canada's largest trading partner in the European Union, the agreement aims to establish structured commitments across several interconnected priority sectors:

• Security & Defence: Strengthening industrial and military cooperation alongside transatlantic NATO commitments.
• Technology & Energy: Aligning efforts on advanced technological innovation, sustainable energy initiatives, and space exploration.
• Supply Chains & Critical Raw Materials: Securing strategic supply chains and ensuring reliable access to essential mineral resources and raw materials for both domestic industries.
• Investment & Trade: Catalyzing private sector investment and expanding job opportunities across key commercial sectors in both countries.

Canadian and German researchers collaborate in projects under the EU's Horizon Europe program, the world's largest cooperative R&D program. An overarching goal of the program being to tackle societal challenges and get ahead in industrial competition. 

Both countries are members of the Eureka Network, the world's largest platform for international industrial research, and jointly co-presided over the Eureka Council in 2024/25.  

A further sign of the depth of the innovation partnership: Hannover Messe, the leading trade fair for manufacturing technologies, welcomed Canada as its Partner Country in 2025. Approximately 250 Canadian companies showcased their innovative strength — green, digital, and resilient.

In December 2025, Canada and Germany launched the “Canada–Germany Digital Alliance” to deepen cooperation on AI, digital sovereignty, and quantum technology. Additionally, Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and Canada's Natural Resources Department signed, in August 2025, a Joint Declaration of Intent on critical minerals.

The memorandum of understanding aims to deepen German Canadian cooperation on critical minerals and to advance the processing, refining, and recycling of strategically important raw materials.

In February 2026, Germany and Canada signed a joint declaration of intent to expand cooperation on auto and battery manufacturing, EV/hydrogen vehicle trade, and critical minerals supply chains.

Direct access via CETA to one of the world's wealthiest markets 

Rule of law, transparency, and political reliability 

Access to critical minerals from a stable, democratic source

From AI and quantum computing to CleanTech industry