Canada’s external trade classified by Broad Economic Categories - ARCHIVED

The Broad Economic Categories (BEC) classification provides users with a new perspective on Canada’s imports and exports. A key feature of the BEC classification is an end-use aggregating structure that is consistent with the three basic classes of goods in the System of National Accounts (SNA), namely, capital goods, intermediate goods, consumption goods. This aggregating structure facilitates the analysis of external trade statistics with other economic data such as industry statistics and national economic account aggregates such as gross domestic product. Imports and exports classified by Broad Economic Categories provide insight into the role of imports and exports as inputs into production, as a source of capital and as a source of goods for final consumption. The focus of this paper will be an analysis of Canada’s external trade according to these national account classes of goods.