Which trade deals has Canada concluded in 2025 and who were the chief negotiators?

1. What Canada signed in 2025 — the headline deals

In 2025 Ottawa publicly celebrated two headline items: a first-ever bilateral trade agreement with Indonesia (described as a “trade agreement” or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in government material) announced Sept. 24, 2025, and a new Canada–UAE Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s November visit to Abu Dhabi ^{[1] [2]}. Global Affairs Canada’s planning documents also list the implementation of the Indonesia agreement among departmental priorities for 2025–26 ^[5].

2. Who publicly fronted those announcements

Prime Minister Mark Carney personally led diplomacy in both cases: he announced the Indonesia agreement ^[1] and signed the Canada–UAE FIPA with UAE leadership during his November visit ^[2]. Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu is explicitly quoted in government releases about the Indonesia deal, signalling ministerial ownership of the file ^[1]. These are political leads; typical treaty practice also involves senior departmental officials and trade negotiators whose names are not always listed in high-level news releases ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Where sources identify “chief negotiators” — the U.S. example

For Canada’s intense 2025 engagement with the United States, reporting and government statements identify Ambassador Kirsten Hillman as Canada’s appointed chief negotiator with the U.S. and Dominic LeBlanc as the minister overseeing Canada–U.S. trade ^{[3] [4]}. Multiple outlets report Hillman and LeBlanc as the senior Canadian negotiating figures during the tariff negotiations and trade talks with the Trump administration ^{[3] [4]}.

4. Gaps in the public record: what sources do not say

Available sources do not list the chief negotiators for the Indonesia deal or the UAE FIPA by name; government announcements foregrounded Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu but did not publish a named “chief negotiator” for those agreements in the linked material ^{[1] [2]}. Global Affairs Canada documents note implementation and negotiating priorities but do not attach individual negotiator names for every concluded 2025 agreement ^{[5] [6]}.

5. Why Canada emphasized political-level signings

Government releases frame these 2025 agreements as part of a broader strategy to diversify away from U.S.-centric trade dependence and to attract investment—Carney’s visits and statements repeatedly make that policy case ^{[2] [1]}. By putting prime-ministerial and ministerial signatures front and centre, Ottawa signals domestic political ownership and uses high-level diplomacy to lock in commercial and investment messaging to investors and exporters ^{[2] [1]}.

6. Competing narratives and areas of contention

Coverage of Canada’s trade posture in 2025 is contested: while Ottawa touts new deals and diversification (Indonesia, UAE, ASEAN engagement), reporting about the Canada–U.S. relationship shows acute friction — public accounts describe the Trump administration halting talks or threatening termination over an advertising dispute, and Canada responding by naming Hillman as chief negotiator and engaging in intensive diplomacy ^{[7] [4] [3]}. Some outlets emphasize progress toward sectoral deals with the U.S.; others highlight abrupt suspensions and political volatility ^{[4] [7]}.

7. How to interpret “chief negotiator” labels

In practice, “chief negotiator” can mean different things: a political appointee (minister or ambassador) who provides direction and public visibility, or a senior bureaucrat who leads technical sessions. For U.S. talks in 2025, sources identify Ambassador Kirsten Hillman as Canada’s chief negotiator, showing Ottawa used a senior diplomatic official in that role ^{[3] [4]}. For the Indonesia and UAE agreements, available reporting emphasizes political signatories and ministerial quotes rather than naming a negotiating chief ^{[1] [2]}.

8. Bottom line and reporting limitations

Canada closed at least two notable agreements in 2025 — the Indonesia trade agreement and a UAE FIPA — with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu publicly associated with those outcomes ^{[1] [2]}. Sources explicitly name Kirsten Hillman as Canada’s chief negotiator only in the U.S. context; available reporting does not provide a comprehensive roster of chief negotiators for each 2025 deal and therefore cannot confirm who led technical negotiations on every agreement ^{[3] [4] [1]}. If you want, I can pull the specific government negotiation announcements, departmental orders-in-council, or Global Affairs materials that sometimes list lead officials for each agreement.