The Federal government announced changes in CanExport program, and I can’t wait to share them with you. Just to remind you, the program pays 50% of the export marketing costs including trade shows, trade mission, travel, export market entry planning, legal fees & more, up to a maximum of $99,999. Here is the summary of the changes in Before & After format.
1. More medium-to-large businesses are now eligible.
Before: Must employ between 1 and 250 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees;
After: Must employ less than 500 employees
2. More small businesses are now eligible too.
Before: Must have between $200,000 and $50 million in annual revenue declared in Canada;
After: Must have between $100,000 and $100 million in annual revenue declared in Canada;
3. The definition of “new export market” is now more flexible. And the applicant can target up to 5 export markets in one application.
Before: Must target export market where the applicant hasn’t exported for the last 24 months;
After: Must target up to 5 export markets where the applicant hasn’t exported or hasn’t substantially exported within the last 24 months. Substantially exported means that during the past 24 months the applicant made less than $20,000 in annual sales in the target market(s) or the annual sales in this market represent less than 10% of its total international sales for the same period.
4. Sub-national markets count as new export markets
New: Large emerging markets (Brazil, India, China) are segmented into sub-national markets. If you, for example, have a client in Shanghai you can still apply for CanExport program to go to the trade show in Beijing even though both cities are in the same export market.
Does your business qualify?
