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SpaceX catches a Starship back from orbit for the first time Canada wraps up free-trade talks with the Philippines and ASEAN, opening a market of 700 million The great flattening: AI is cutting middle managers. Nvidia shows the risk! Samsung reportedly in talks to buy US data-centre cooling specialist Modine Oil holds near $95 as tankers keep getting hit in Hormuz Seoul upgrades economy to “solid growth” as chip exports nearly triple Qatar Airways restores Riyadh and Dammam as Etihad extends Saudi suspension IEA flips to oil surplus: Q4 supply to beat demand by 1.7M bpd Cartier owner Richemont slides 9% as jewellery growth halves Anthropic’s $61B IPO reportedly six times oversubscribed ahead of pricing

SpaceX catches a Starship back from orbit for the first time Canada wraps up free-trade talks with the Philippines and ASEAN, opening a market of 700 million The great flattening: AI is cutting middle managers. Nvidia shows the risk! Samsung reportedly in talks to buy US data-centre cooling specialist Modine Oil holds near $95 as tankers keep getting hit in Hormuz Seoul upgrades economy to “solid growth” as chip exports nearly triple Qatar Airways restores Riyadh and Dammam as Etihad extends Saudi suspension IEA flips to oil surplus: Q4 supply to beat demand by 1.7M bpd Cartier owner Richemont slides 9% as jewellery growth halves Anthropic’s $61B IPO reportedly six times oversubscribed ahead of pricing

Policy & Regulation

Canada wraps up free-trade talks with the Philippines and ASEAN, opening a market of 700 million

Canada has concluded free-trade negotiations with the Philippines and largely finished a wider deal with ASEAN. It’s Ottawa’s biggest step yet in reducing its reliance on trade with the US.

News | 15 November 2026

Canada wraps up free-trade talks with the Philippines and ASEAN, opening a market of 700 million

Canada’s trade map is being redrawn. Prime Minister Mark Carney used his Manila trip to close free-trade talks with the Philippines and largely finish a broader deal with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, a market of more than 700 million people. In Manila, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada has concluded free-trade negotiations with the Philippines and substantially concluded a wider deal with ASEAN. The deals unlock greater access to a market of more than 700 million people for Canadian businesses.

Canada, ASEAN and the Philippines are aiming to sign the agreements in 2027. Canada ranked as the Philippines’ 16th overall trading partner in 2025, with bilateral merchandise trade of $3.4 billion, up 7.4%. Earlier talks had flagged oil and gas, critical minerals and agriculture as the main sectors for expanding trade.

The starting point is small: Canada–Philippines goods trade was just $3.4 billion last year. But the logic is about where future growth will come from. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest-growing regions, and it wants what Canada sells: energy, critical minerals and food.

The bigger story is diversification. With the US relationship strained by tariffs, Ottawa is building trade routes that don’t go through Washington. The deals are due to be signed in 2027.