AMMAN, Jordan — Canada has inked a free trade pact with Jordan that will lift duties on Canadian exports to the Arab nation.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day and his Jordanian counterpart signed the agreement Sunday in Jordan's capital, Amman.

Canada's forestry, manufacturing and agriculture sectors are expected to benefit from duty-free access.

In return, Canada will give the Mideast country preferential trade conditions, including full exemption from customs duties for Jordanian goods.

The deal is expected to be ratified by both parliaments later this year.

Bilateral trade stood at about $92.2 million in 2008, according to a news release from Canadian government.

"The (agreement) signed today will encourage two-way investment by providing investors with the clarity and certainty they need when investing in foreign markets," Day said in a statement.

The release highlighted resource extraction, nuclear energy, telecommunications, transportation and infrastructure as promising sectors for Canadian investment in Jordan.

Day also donned his travelling salesman's hat in Jordan by talking up Canada's nuclear industry -- particularly Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s brand of Candu reactors.

Last month, the Harper government announced plans to split up and sell off Crown-owned AECL's profitable nuclear reactor business. It's part of a major restructuring that will also mean private-sector management for AECL's research facility in Chalk River, Ont., which makes the medical isotopes used in diagnostic scans.

The unit at Chalk River produces up to half the global supply of medical isotopes used to detect cancer and heart ailments.

A heavy-water leak shut down the 52-year-old Chalk River reactor last month, and the company says it will be out of commission until at least August -- but probably longer.

Canada also signed three related deals on labour co-operation, the environment, and foreign investment promotion and protection.