Department for International TradeGovernment

The Department for International Trade (Kansainvälisen kaupan osasto) is an operational department within Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs responsible for formulating and implementing national trade policy, negotiating commercial agreements, and advancing export promotion. It works to lower international trade barriers, support Finnish companies abroad, and coordinate national input into the European Union's common commercial policy. Established alongside the foreign ministry in 1918 as the Trade Policy Department (Kauppapoliittinen osasto), it played a vital role in negotiating Finland's major 20th-century economic pacts, including its 1961 association with EFTA and free-trade agreements with the EEC, before being restructured under its current remit.