Taiwan-Canada Trade and Investment Information

Bilateral Trade between Taiwan and Canada

According to Statistics Canada, in 2021, Taiwan is Canada's fastest growing country in bilateral trade among its Asian trading partners. Canada's imports from Taiwan values US$6.2 billion, a substantial increase of 48.1% over the previous (2020) year. In the same year, Canada's exports to Taiwan values 1.95 billion US dollars, an increase of 46.3%, and the total bilateral trade between Taiwan and Canada reached 8.2 billion in US dollars, an increase of 47.9%, a record high since 1995.

During the pandemic in Canada, there was a strong demand for sports equipment, laptop computers, electronic equipment and semiconductors, while Taiwan's pandemic prevention was successful, manufacturing plants were less affected so that the supply chain was relatively stable which helps Taiwan-Canada bilateral trade relations.

Last year, Canada's total import and export trade increased by 24.5% comparing to the previous year. The total bilateral trade volume between China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and India increased by 21.7%. In the past 10 years, Canada has progressively expanded its global markets in order to reduce its trade dependence on the United States. Comparing to the previous year and the year of 2012, the bilateral trade volume between Canada and the above-mentioned six major Asian trading partners has increased by 32%, showing an upward trend year by year.

In 2021, Taiwan was Canada's 10th country of imports (13th the previous year) and the 16th largest export market (18th the previous year), and Canada's 11th largest trading partner in the world (15th the previous year) as well as the fifth largest trading partner in Asia (after China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and surpassing India in 2020); Canada is ranked Taiwan's 32nd country of imports, the 18th export market, and the 24th trading partner.

Overview of Canadian Investment Environment

Canada has the advantages of abundant natural resources, professional talents and technology, sound education and medical system, stable and competitive financial industry, world-class communication and transportation infrastructure, and proximity to the US market; Canada is also recognized by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and was selected as one of the best places for business and investment, ranking first among the 7 major industrial countries (G7). In addition, Canada’s financial system is sound and its leverage risk is much lower than that of other advanced countries. Therefore, it has demonstrated its amazing resilience and stability during the past several global financial turmoil. In recent years, it has been recognized by the World Economic Forum for several consecutive years and rated as the world's most robust financial system.

According to researches from various international academic or survey institutions evaluating the competitiveness of enterprises and the investment environment, the overall economic and business environment of Canada is fairly good. The relevant evaluations are as follows:

In 2021, the "World Competitive Yearbook (WCY)" of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland: Canada ranks 14th in the world in terms of competitiveness;
In the "2020 Global Competitiveness Report" published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2020, Canada ranked 14th;
According to the statistics of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), more than 55% of the 25-54-year-old population in Canada has a tertiary education, ranking 5th among the OECD countries, second only to Australia, Switzerland, Sweden and New Zealand; more than 60% of companies Homers consider Canada to be the most attractive country, ranking No. 1 among OECD countries.

Overview of foreign investment in Canada

Canada is rich in natural resources, but its low corporate productivity, high taxes, labor shortages, and trade barriers between provinces have been criticized by investors. There are also many restrictions on the right to operate, so large-scale foreign investment is mostly concentrated in oil, natural gas and minerals. For example, China National Offshore Oil Corporation acquired Canadian oil and gas company Nexen for $15.1 billion and Malaysia's national oil company Petronas acquired Progress Energy Resource for C$6 billion.

U.S. foreign direct investment in Canada rose by $9.9 billion to $456.7 billion, accounting for 49.9% of Canada's total foreign direct investment. Foreign direct investment from Europe grew by US$20.4 billion to US$418.5 billion, mainly from high-value investments from Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Foreign direct investment in Asia and Oceania totaled US$108.5 billion, a decrease of US$4.8 billion compared with 2019, mainly due to factors such as the delay in the supply chain of foreign companies and the increase in labor and capital due to the new crown epidemic.

Taiwanese businesses operating in Canada

Taiwanese businesses are mainly concentrated in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and they form the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce or the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce organizations respectively. The main business industries operated by Taiwanese in Canada include computers and peripheral equipment, information services, textiles, food, gifts, electronic and electrical products, real estate, furniture, catering, freight services, financial services and tourism services. China Airlines, EVA Air, Mega International Commercial Bank, Asustek Computer and Acer Computer collectively operate in Canada or have sales offices and agents.

According to the statistics of the Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan cumulates investment in Canada amounted to 570 million US dollars, a total of 106 cases during 1952 to present time. Since the mid-1980s, the scale of investment and operation of Chinese companies in Canada has expanded rapidly, and the types of industries involved are fairly wide. In particular, the Greater Vancouver area and the Toronto area have become one of the important cities for Chinese companies to operate in North America.

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