Comparing Canada’s and China’s Bilateral Trade Data

Bilateral trade between Canada and China has grown significantly over the past years, and differences in the trade statistics of the two countries have widened in step with this growth. In theory, Canada’s statistics for imports and exports with China should match China’s statistics for exports and imports with Canada. This is not the case in practice, as trade values differ between the two countries’ data. Since 2016, Statistics Canada and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China have worked together to account for differences in their bilateral trade in goods and services statistics. This paper presents the results of the comparison of Canada’s and China’s bilateral merchandise and services trade statistics.