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March 2009
Canada’s merchandise imports and exports both declined in March largely due to volume reductions. Imports decreased more than twice as fast as exports, leading to the widening of Canada’s trade surplus with the world from $262 million in February to $1.1 billion in March.
Imports fell 4.4% to $31.4 billion as most sectors posted decreases. Energy products registered the largest decline followed by machinery and equipment as well as industrial goods and materials. Since the peak of July 2008, imports have fallen more than $8.0 billion mainly due to declines in the energy products and automotive products sectors.
Exports were down 1.8% to $32.5 billion largely reflecting a decline in exports to the United States. Increased exports to the European Union moderated the decline. Overall exports have fallen $11.8 billion since reaching their highest level in July 2008, primarily due to weaknesses in exports of energy products in the latter part of 2008.
Canada's trade surplus with the United States remained at $3.6 billion in March, virtually unchanged from February. Exports to the United States decreased 4.1% while imports declined 4.7%.
The trade deficit with countries other than the United States narrowed to $2.5 billion from $3.3 billion in February as exports increased 4.5% while imports decreased 3.9%.
While both imports and exports posted gains in February and fell back in March, the March pace of decline is considerably slower than those observed in December and January.
Note to readers
Merchandise trade is one component of the current account of Canada's balance of payments, which also includes trade in services, investment income and transfers.
International merchandise trade data by country are available on both a balance of payments and a customs basis for the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. Trade data for all other individual countries are available on a customs basis only. Balance of payments data are derived from customs data by making adjustments for characteristics such as valuation, coverage, timing and residency. These adjustments are made to conform to the concepts and definitions of the Canadian System of National Accounts.
Constant dollars referred to in the text are calculated using the Laspeyres volume formula which is current dollars divided by Paasche indexes.
Revisions
In general, merchandise trade data are revised on an ongoing basis for each month of the current year. Current and previous year revisions are reflected in both the customs and balance of payments based data. Revisions to customs based data for the previous year are also released on a quarterly basis.
Factors influencing revisions include late receipt of import and export documentation, incorrect information on customs forms, replacement of estimates with actual figures, changes in classification of merchandise based on more current information and changes to seasonal adjustment factors.
Revised data are available in the appropriate CANSIM tables.
