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Support UsCanada's Trade with the World, by Product
The automotive sector, along with the oil and gas sector, account for the bulk of Canada’s imports represented in this table. The same may be said of exports. The situation with petroleum may seem anomalous for an oil exporter such as Canada. However, it reflects the location of Canada’s oil reserves. Canada’s western provinces (British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan) exported 76% and the eastern provinces (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) imported 78% of Canada’s mineral oils, fuels and waxes in 2009. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this data is the importance of automotive exports, as evidenced by the 7.9% share of total Canadian domestic exports that are represented by just one class of vehicle. The vast majority of Canada’s automotive exports are destined for the United States. Canada often chides itself for too heavy a reliance on primary (commodity) exports. To be sure, such exports are very important in our overall trade profile, as witnessed by the fact that they make up five of the top 10 exports in this table. Due to higher demand and prices, crude petroleum oil exports captured a 13% share of Canada’s exports to the world in 2009. But automobiles and their parts have continued to be the most significant elements of Canada’s overall trade profile for a number of years.
| Canada’s Trade with the World, by Product, 2009 | ||||
| Canadian Imports from World | Canadian Exports to World | |||
| Merchandise Classification | % | Merchandise Classification | % | |
| 1 | Boilers, mechanical appliances, etc. | 14.47 | Mineral fuels, oils | 24.37 |
| 2 | Motor vehicles, trailers, bicycles, motorcycles | 13.54 | Motor vehicles, trailers, bicycles, motorcycles | 11.22 |
| 3 | Electrical machinery and equipment | 10.50 | Boilers, mechanical appliances, etc. | 7.68 |
| 4 | Mineral fuels, oils | 9.41 | Pearls, precious stones or metals | 3.81 |
| 5 | Pharmaceutical products | 3.61 | Electrical machinery and equipment | 3.58 |
| 6 | Plastic and plastic articles | 3.32 | Paper and paperboard | 3.25 |
| 7 | Optical, medical, scientific, technical instrumentation | 3.07 | Aircraft and spacecraft | 3.04 |
| 8 | Pearls, precious stones or metals | 2.60 | Plastic and plastic articles | 3.01 |
| 9 | Iron or steel articles | 2.28 | Aluminum and aluminum articles | 2.24 |
| 10 | Furniture and stuffed furnishings | 1.94 | Wood and wood articles, charcoal | 2.21 |
| Top 10 as % of total from the World | 64.74 | Top 10 as % of total to the World | 64.40 | |
Source: Trade Data Online. Industry Canada. 29 May 2010. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/tdo-dcd.nsf/eng/Home
Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada.
Notes: The table is based on Harmonised System (HS) codes at the 6-digit level. Commodities are assigned these codes in order that accurate trade records can be kept, tariffs collected appropriately, customs procedures followed, and so forth. The HS system of codes, at its most disaggregated, assigns a 10-digit code to a given item. As the degree of aggregation increases, the number of digits in the code decreases. Thus, for example, the 6-digit HS code assigned to a motor vehicle with a spark-type ignition and a cylinder capacity of more than 3000 cc is 870323. The 2-digit HS code (in this case it is 87) includes not only this type of vehicle, but also many other types of vehicles and a wide variety of vehicle accessories and parts. To learn more about the HS Code system used by Statistics Canada go to http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/tdo-dcd.nsf/eng/h_00048.html.