Inclusive trade

In 2018, EDC launched our first national strategy specific to women in trade to address the underrepresentation of women among entrepreneurs currently exporting. Our strategy also supports the Canadian federal government's commitment to all segments of society and to champion an inclusive approach to trade.

Since then, EDC’s support has grown steadily to assist more women-owned and -led businesses on their exporting journey. So far, we’ve served almost 4,297 such companies, facilitating $8.76.8 billion in business, and want to continue that growth.   

A key component of our strategy is to collaborate within the ecosystem of organizations supporting women-owned and -led businesses to ensure that in addition to growth capital, they have the full wrap-around support they need to be successful in international markets.

Learn more about EDC’s Women in Trade program

EDC is dedicated to supporting Indigenous businesses as they pursue economic self-reliance and growth through exporting. Guided by respect for Indigenous history, traditions and culture, we remove barriers to growth so that Indigenous-owned and -led businesses can thrive on the world stage while creating jobs and sustainable prosperity in their communities.

The initial focus of our Indigenous business strategy was on building partnerships within the Indigenous business community to raise awareness about and to ensure relevance and accessibility of EDC’s knowledge and financial solutions. 

While that work continues, we have expanded our collaboration to Indigenous and non-Indigenous financial institutions across Canada to deliver financial solutions to Indigenous businesses. Our support for Indigenous companies has steadily grown to include:

• pandemic assistance
• direct lending
• loan guarantees 
• insurance and other financial products
• participating in the new Indigenous Growth Fund 

Despite these advances, there is much more to do as Indigenous businesses continue to face financial and market challenges. EDC will continue to partner with them respectfully and adapt our products and services to meet their unique needs, in a spirit of reconciliation.

See how EDC supports Indigenous businesses

Black-owned businesses are crucial to growing our economy, but these companies continue to face significant challenges when pursuing growth and achieving profitability. 

Our national lead for Black exporters conducts research and consults with Black entrepreneurs to gain a better understanding of the tools and support they need to scale up their businesses. Collaborating with Black business-serving organizations, other government agencies and the private sector, EDC is working to create a trade ecosystem that’s responsive to the needs of Black businesses as they pursue growth through exporting.

Under the Inclusive Trade Investments Program, EDC has committed to BKR Capital, which focuses on investing in Canadian pre-seed and seed stage technology companies founded by Black entrepreneurs.

Learn more about Trade barriers for Black businesses in Canada.

We continue to engage with the 2SLGBTQI+ business community to identify opportunities to grow our support. Through our partnership with the Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CGLCC), which advocates for more than 100,000 2SLGBTQI+ owned and operated businesses, we aim to deepen our understanding of the challenges facing this business community so that we can help remove barriers and provide meaningful support.