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.

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.

2019: This report provides a comprehensive summary of the main developments in Canada’s commercial activities during the previous year. It describes the events that took place in the global economy and trade in 2018, the main developments in Canada’s economy and those of its most important partner economies and regions. It reports the developments in Canada’s trade in goods and services, as well as flows and stocks of foreign direct investment and Canadian direct investment abroad. 2020: This report gives Canadians a snapshot of our economic activities in 2019 while recognizing the unprecedented global uncertainty of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This report highlights how Canadian innovation and resilience has allowed our businesses to continue to compete in the global marketplace and our government’s commitment to supporting trade through turbulent times. 2021: This report captures the story of the incredible sacrifices made and resilience demonstrated by Canadians and businesses through an unparalleled chapter in our country's history, and charts a path forward as we step into our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022 : This report highlights Canada's robust trade and investment recovery, which has displayed remarkable resilience during another challenging year. This year's report focuses on free trade agreements, which will continue to be vital tools for Canadian businesses as they enter this new phase of the post-pandemic recovery.

This study focuses on the diversity of merchandise exports by product. Export diversity by product is important to hedge against price shocks and sector-specific drops in demand. Product diversity is also important for ensuring that a positive shock in demand or price for a given product does not appreciate the currency to the point it reduces the competitiveness of other industries.

북미 지역 소재 다양한 국가들 간의 수출 유사도를 분석한 데이터 입니다. 북미 지역본부 내 국가 중 3개년 (21년-23년)간 전체 품목으로 수출한 기업 수를 집계, 국가별/품목별 수출 기업 수를 기준으로 국가별 수출 유사도를 코사인 유사도로 산정하였습니다. 코사인 유사도는 두 벡터 간의 유사성을 측정하는 방법으로, 주로 벡터 공간 모델에서 사용됩니다. 이 데이터는 특정 국가들이 다른 국가들과 비교해 얼마나 비슷한 수출 구조를 가지고 있는지, 즉 어떤 산업이나 제품군에서 유사한 수출 경향을 보이는지를 분석하는 데 활용할 수 있습니다. 국제무역을 하고 있는 기업들에게 수출 전략 수립, 마케팅, 시장 분석 등에 중요한 역할을 합니다.

On September 21, 2017, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Canada’s most ambitious trade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), provisionally entered into force. The 27 European Union members and the United Kingdom (referred as the EU hereafter), as a group, represent Canada’s second largest merchandise trading partner after the United States. In 2019, the EU accounted for over 8 percent of Canada’s merchandise exports and nearly 13 percent of Canada’s merchandise imports. This report aims to present Canada’s merchandise trade performance in the two years since the implementation of CETA. It provides historical comparisons of trade performances before and after CETA and comparisons between the products that directly benefit from CETA concessions (affected products) and products that were already duty-free, and for a limited number of agricultural products that were exempted from concessions (non-affected products). However, this presentation of post-CETA trade performance should not be considered a causal effect of CETA. Given the short time series of trade data available since CETA was implemented, the analysis does not use advanced econometric techniques to establish causality and to control for macroeconomic fluctuations and other industry- and product-specific factors that also influence post-CETA bilateral trade flows. A more sophisticated analysis would be undertaken to isolate CETA’s effect when a longer time series becomes available. The analysis is presented in three parts: 1) Canada-EU trade performance based on Statistics Canada’s trade data; 2) Canada-EU trade performance based on respective import statistics from Statistics Canada and Eurostat, which allows for splitting trade according to tariff concessions under CETA; and 3) the utilization of CETA preferences.

This report analyzes the export longevity—or duration of export activity—of Canadian exporters, and whether export longevity differs based on firms’ different approaches to international expansion.

Contributions to annual percent change in real exports and imports of goods and services.

The Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA) program, administered by Global Affairs Canada since 2013, was introduced to facilitate the international expansion of high-potential Canadian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Previous reports, including the "Results and Outcomes Report 2019-2020" and the program evaluation for the Federal Government budget renewal in 2023, have highlighted positive outcomes such as increased revenue, job creation, and capital raised for CTA firms. This study starts by finding similar correlations. Firms that participated in the CTA experienced accelerated growth in revenue, assets, payroll, expenditures, Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SRED) expenditures, and investment in machinery and equipment.