Export Development Canada and Export Finance Australia signed a memorandum of understanding in Sydney to cooperate on strategic financing and investment projects.
Export Development Canada and Export Finance Australia have signed a memorandum of understanding in Sydney to strengthen cooperation between the two export credit agencies, the organisations announced on Tuesday.
The agreement establishes a framework for collaboration on strategic financing opportunities and investment projects that support economic growth, energy security, supply chain resilience and sustainable development. Through the partnership the two agencies will explore co-financing, transaction facilitation, joint outreach and knowledge sharing, while helping connect Canadian and Australian companies and investors in areas including infrastructure, energy and energy transition, mining and critical minerals, agri-food and agtech, digital technologies, and defence and aerospace.
The agencies put the relationship in context: in 2025 bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and Australia totalled CAD$7.3 billion, with Canadian exports exceeding CAD$3 billion, and since the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership entered into force in 2018, bilateral merchandise trade has grown at an average annual rate of eight per cent. Australia is the largest destination in the Asia-Pacific region for Canadian direct investment abroad, with Canadian direct investment in Australia reaching CAD$50.1 billion in 2025, while Australia's direct investment in Canada totalled CAD$36.4 billion. Export Finance Australia managing director and chief executive John Hopkins said the agreement gives the two agencies a practical framework to continue working together and to share expertise.
The memorandum itself is the primary record, published by the agencies, and the trade and investment figures in this article are the agencies' own figures as stated in their announcement, presented as such rather than as independently audited statistics. A memorandum of understanding is a framework for cooperation, not a financing commitment, and this article does not treat it as a funded deal.
The practical test will be whether the framework produces jointly supported transactions, particularly in energy transition and critical minerals, where both countries are trying to build supply chains less exposed to single suppliers. The agencies' next announcements of co-financed projects will show whether the pact moves from cooperation language to capital.