This study focuses on the diversity of merchandise and commercial services exports by destination. Export diversity is important to hedge against the risk of an economic downturn in partner economies, but it also helps to protect against the threat of trade protectionism. Protectionism is materializing across the world, not only through the United States imposing tariffs on imports of Canadian metal, but also in other events such as Brexit.

Canada’s Export Diversification Strategy facilitates efforts to help Canadian businesses reduce the uncertainties and potential disruptions they may face in international trade, as well as help them seize the opportunities created by diversifying to new global markets.

The containment measures enacted to combat the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the factor that left heavy negative impacts on Canadian exports and other aspects of the Canadian economy in 2020. An interesting feature of the “COVID-19 downturn” is the exceptionally large month to month variation in economic and trade activity, especially in the first half of 2020. Early in the pandemic, both exports value and the number of exporting enterprises suffered greatly, declining 34% and 20%, respectively, between February and April. Starting in May, both exports value and the number of exporters started to recover at a fast pace, and the fast pace of the recovery continued throughout most of summer 2020. Beginning in the fall of 2020, the recovery in exports value and the number of exporters continued but at a slower pace. By the end of the year, exports value has almost reached pre-pandemic (February 2020) level but the number of exporters was still 3.5% below pre‑pandemic level.

Largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s merchandise trade —and merchandise trade around the world—has been volatile in the last two years. Business closures to control the spread of the virus, shifts in spending patterns, volatile commodity prices, and lingering supply chain issues have all contributed to the disruptions in trade. Between February 2020 and May 2020, Canadian imports and exports both fell 29%. As pandemic restrictions gradually eased, monetary policy become more accommodating, fiscal supports materialized, and Canadians transitioned to working online, Canadian trade rebounded. As of October 2021, Canadian merchandise imports were 5.7% above 2019 average (pre-pandemic) levels, while Canadian merchandise exports were 13% above pre-pandemic levels. However, the fall and subsequent recovery of Canadian trade is more complicated than the simple narrative that things have returned to normal. In general, two components determine the value of Canadian trade: the quantity of goods traded and the price paid for those goods. Examining the quantity and price changes over the last two years provides more nuance on what actually changed during the pandemic, and contributes to a clearer narrative of the emerging trends in merchandise trade.

International merchandise trade data for total exports, domestic exports and re-exports, by country of destination and country of origin. Users have the option of selecting principal trading partners as well as North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) sections and groups.

The State of Trade document is the Department's report card on the performance of our economy. This comprehensive document reviews and analyzes the key developments in Canada’s international trade and investment performance against the background of economic trends at home and abroad.

Masitek Instruments is one of many exporters that have come to realize the benefits of harnessing Canada’s rich diversity.

Understand how small and medium-sized enterprises may expand Canadian SMEs business footprint by accessing global markets.