Canada has bilateral and multilateral foreign trade agreements (FTAs). Most of the FTAs ​​to which Canada is a signatory contain provisions to facilitate the mobility of temporary business persons to Canada.

Generally, eligible foreign workers under a FTA require a work permit to work in Canada, but are exempt from obtaining a labor market impact assessment ( LMIA ), which makes the process of obtaining a work permit be seamless, cheap and fast.

The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is the largest FTA to which Canada is a part of.

The Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), along with the Chile, Peru, Colombia and Korea FTAs, are similar to CUSMA and all contain provisions granting temporary entry to 4 categories of business persons: business visitors , professionals, assignees within the company, and merchants and investors.

Entry requirements vary significantly from category to category. However, the same exemption from requiring an LMIA applies.