Delay of publication of monthly Canadian international trade data

Released: 2025-11-04

As noted in the October 24 publication "Impacts of the partial US government shutdown on the upcoming release of Canadian international trade data," the November 4 releases of Canadian international merchandise trade and Canadian international trade in services for the September 2025 reference month will not occur as originally planned and will be released at a later date.

Statistics Canada sources its data on Canada's exports to the United States from the United States Census Bureau (USCB), and the partial shutdown of the US federal government has affected USCB operations, resulting in data files not being transmitted to Statistics Canada. As a result, Statistics Canada must postpone the release of merchandise trade data for the September reference month, as well as the release of monthly trade in services, which depends on complete merchandise trade data and other information published by US federal agencies.

This delay impacts the publication of all products related to the release of September international trade data, including analytical reports in The Daily, and updates to data tables and interactive tools such as the Canadian International Merchandise Trade Web Application (Catalogue number71-607-X) and the International trade monthly interactive dashboard. The publication of revisions to prior months normally included with the September release will also be delayed.

Third quarter releases on Canada's balance of international payments and gross domestic product by expenditure, which rely on international merchandise trade data as an input, will be published as planned on November 27 and 28, respectively. If the September 2025 international merchandise trade data are unavailable when these statistics are compiled for the third quarter of 2025, Statistics Canada will produce special estimates of Canadian exports to the United States for that month, relying in part on modelled data.

Note that because of the duration of the shutdown, the planned release dates for international trade statistics for subsequent reference months could also be affected. In 2018-2019, a 35-day US government shutdown resulted in delays to five consecutive monthly international merchandise trade publications.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).