China Now #2 Importer of Canadian Goods
China has surpassed Britain as Canada’s No. 2 export destination, a milestone in the inevitable shift from the stagnant Old World to faster-growing emerging markets.
Canadian goods exports to China surged 15 per cent last year to $19.3-billion, paced by a near-doubling of canola seed and canola oil shipments, according to newly tabulated government trade figures.
It’s a case of “China meets Saskatchewan,” Dan Ciuriak, former deputy chief economist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said of the numbers showing China topping Britain for the first time. Exports to Britain fell nearly 1 per cent to $18.6-billion.
“In a big-picture sense, it’s just an inevitable reality that as China becomes larger, it would overtake the Old World,” said Mr. Ciuriak, now a consultant. “It was just a question of time.”
Canada isn’t alone in being touched by China, which surpassed the United States as the world’s largest goods trading nation in 2012. The U.S. still does more overall trade if services are included.
Canada’s exports to China have nearly doubled between 2008 and 2012, a period in which the country’s overall exports fell nearly 1 per cent. Canadian exports to China of bulk commodities such as coal and iron ore were also up sharply last year.
China’s economy has been growing at 10 per cent a year for most of the past decade and is hungry for the resources that Canada has in abundance. Europe, on the other hand, has been stagnant for the past four years, with some countries in a deep recession.
Canada’s trade with China is destined to increase both because the country is growing so fast and because the countries’ main products complement each other, Mr. Ciuriak said. “We’re very natural trading partners.”
– Globe and Mail