Canada is turning its opposition to Israeli settlements into a trade restriction, with Prime Minister Mark Carney joining French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham in pledging to ban imports of goods originating from settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In a leaders’ statement, the three governments said they would take steps to prohibit settlement-goods imports and apply targeted measures against settlements and those that facilitate or profit from them. The announcement moves Canada beyond diplomatic condemnation and toward a customs-based restriction, although Ottawa has not yet published an effective date, covered products, enforcement mechanism, or estimate of affected trade.
Global Affairs Canada said Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK intend to introduce national restrictions, support European restrictions, or are actively considering those and other measures. The same statement specifically says Canada, France, and the UK will bring forward national measures to ban settlement-goods trade.
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That distinction means the coalition has agreed on pressure against settlement commerce, but not on one uniform 12-country import ban.
The governments tied the move to Israel’s publication of tenders for the E1 settlement project and what they described as unprecedented settler violence and settlement expansion. An August 20 joint leaders’ statement said E1 would cut across the West Bank and damage the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state.
The International Court of Justice said in its July 2024 advisory opinion that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are established and maintained in violation of international law.
For Canada, the immediate economic impact remains unclear. Canada and Israel recorded more than $1.8 billion in two-way merchandise trade in 2024, according to Global Affairs Canada, but Ottawa has not disclosed how much of that trade originated in settlements.
