Features Money Sense Opinion
Interested in overseas markets? The CanExport program can help

Now that the vast majority of COVID restrictions have ended, companies are once again thinking about participating in trade shows or developing new markets outside of Canada. If your company is looking at these marketing opportunities, the CanExport program can assist you by providing financial assistance of up to 50 per cent of costs to a maximum of $50,000 per year.

Qualifications

Your company must:

• be a for-profit business with incorporated legal entity or a limited liability partnership;
• have a CRA Business Number (unless Indigenous-owned or led);
• have between five and 500 full-time equivalent employees; and
• sales for your last fiscal year must not be less than $100,000 and not over $100 million.

Your company also needs to be spending a minimum of $20,000 and no more than $100,000 per new market development activities.

Coverage details

CanExport funding covers several export market development-related activities.

A: Travel

For this activity, CanExport will cover the following expenses for two employees:

the cost of economy or premium economy plane tickets;

• a $400 daily allowance per person;
• costs for transportation;
• mandatory visa fees; and
• costs of hiring an interpreter.

B: Trade events

This includes the cost of registering and participating in international trade shows, seminars, forums or private exhibitions. Types of expenses for two employees covered are:

• space rentals, booth design and construction services, trade shows services (such as power and Wi-Fi) and AV equipment rentals; and
• shipping and handling costs of promotional materials and prototypes.

C: Internet and print marketing for export markets

Expenses covered includes:

• cost of producing or adapting marketing material; and
• cost of online advertising.

D: IP protection

Expenses covered includes:

• application fees for the protection of intellectual property including trademarks, patents, etc.;
• application fees related to required certifications;
• the cost of registering a product in the export market; and
• adaptation and translation of contractual agreement for the export market (e.g. sales contract, distribution agreement etc.).

Markets

Businesses may receive funding for no more than five countries per year. A business may continue to receive export funding until their sales in that export market hits 10 per cent of their annual sales.

Application deadline

You need to apply for CanExport funding 60 days before your scheduled departure.   

Bonny Koabel, CPA, CGA, is president of AKR Consulting Canada that specializes in government grants, subsidies, tax credits, refunds and rebates since 2003. She can be reached at bonny@akrconsulting.com.