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International economics consists of two main parts. The first is international trade theory and commercial policy. The second is international finance and balance of payments theory and policy.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was an economic free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Designed to eliminate all trade and investment barriers between the three countries, the free trade agreement came into force on 1 January 1994. In addition to being one of the most ambitious trade agreements in history, NAFTA also created the world’s largest free trade area. It brought together two wealthy, developed countries (Canada and the United States) with a less developed state (Mexico). The agreement built on the earlier Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), which came into effect on 1 January 1989. After NAFTA was signed, trade and investment relations between the three countries expanded rapidly, but political co-operation remained weak. NAFTA continued to be controversial, particularly in the United States. In 2017, US president Donald Trump threatened to renegotiate or cancel the deal. More than a year of negotiations produced a revised version of NAFTA called the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). CUSMA came into effect on 1 July 2020.

Exports are goods or services that residents of one country sell to residents of another country. Since its earliest days, Canada’s economic prosperity has relied on exports to larger markets; first through its colonial ties to Britain and later due to its geographic proximity to the United States. Billions of dollars of goods and services cross Canada’s border each year. (See International Trade.) Exports make up about a third of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 2019, Canadians exported $729 billion worth of goods and services. Almost 75 per cent of Canada’s total exports go to the United States. (See Canada-US Economic Relations.) Other major markets include the European Union, China and Japan.

Agricultural aid is the provision of agricultural products or technology by one nation to another, normally by developed to developing countries. Aid will continue to be required because in many developing countries 4 out of 10 persons are malnourished.

Commodity futures markets provide a means for the organized trading of contracts for the delivery of goods at a later date. Today, these include agricultural products, metals, forest products, petroleum products, interest rates and stocks.

The Automotive Products Trade Agreement of 1965, better known as the Canada-US Auto Pact, led to the integration of the Canadian and US auto industries in a shared North American market. While it brought great benefits to Canada, it was eventually found to be contrary to international trade rules and was cancelled in 2001. By then it had accomplished its biggest goal — an integrated North American industry with a much stronger Canadian presence.

The dollar became the official monetary unit of the Province of Canada on 1 January 1858 and the official currency of Canada after Confederation.

A free trade area as defined by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is "a group of two or more customs territories in which duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce... are eliminated on substantially all the trade between the constituent territories in products originating in such territories."

Wholesalers (also called distributors) buy goods for resale to retailers (see RETAIL TRADE), industrial, commercial, governmental, institutional and professional users or to other wholesalers. They also act as agents in connection with such sales.

An Agricultural Marketing Board is a statutory body which acts as a compulsory marketing agent, performing or controlling one or more of the functions of marketing on behalf of producers of specific agricultural commodities.