(Adds metal products and percentage contribution in paragraph 9 to reflect that both metal and energy were responsible for export drop) <\/p>\n
By Promit Mukherjee <\/p>\n
OTTAWA, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Canada’s trade surplus narrowed sharply in July as exports of energy and metal products \u200cshrank while imports rose, just weeks before Washington’s new 50% tariffs begin to show up in statistics, posing a stiffer \u200ctest for Canadian exporters. <\/p>\n
The trade surplus was C$769 million (US$557 million), compared with a four-year high surplus of C$4.2 billion posted a month ago, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. Economists \u200bpolled by Reuters had forecast a surplus of C$3.57 billion in July. <\/p>\n
Exports dropped 2.3%, while imports increased 2.2%. <\/p>\n
Amid an escalating trade dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Canada has been seeking to reduce its dependence on its neighbour and largest trading partner. <\/p>\n
The U.S. accounted for 66.35% of Canada’s total exports in July, down from 69.39% in June and 72.64% a year ago. <\/p>\n
However, Canada’s import dependence on the U.S. has only narrowed to 59% in \u200cthe last 12 months compared with 62% in \u20602024. <\/p>\n
The July figures, Canada’s fifth consecutive monthly trade surplus, extended a run of relatively resilient Canadian trade despite more than a year and a half of U.S. tariffs. <\/p>\n
However, Washington’s latest duties, imposed last month, will provide a \u2060tougher test for exporters in the coming months. <\/p>\n
The decrease in exports in July was primarily led by metal products and energy products, which together contributed more than 40% of total exports. <\/p>\n
Their value dropped 4.4% in July, a third consecutive monthly decline after exports of crude oil decreased by 5.5%, with both \u200bprices and \u200bvolumes falling, StatsCan said. <\/p>\n
Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products, which posted an \u200bincrease of 15.8% in the prior month, also shrank \u200cby 8.5% in July. <\/p>\n
As a result, Canada’s total exports fell to C$76.14 billion, down from C$77.96 billion in June, but excluding metals and energy, exports increased 0.6% in July. <\/p>\n
The overall decrease in total exports in July was partially offset by higher exports of aircraft and other transportation equipment and parts, which surged by 34.9%. <\/p>\n
Imports rose in July to a value of C$75.37 billion, up from C$73.76 billion, StatsCan said, adding that it was the sixth consecutive monthly increase. <\/p>\n
This was led by an 11.4% increase in imports of motor vehicles and parts, mainly from the U.S. <\/p>\n
Exports \u200cto the U.S. dropped 6.6% in July while imports from the country increased by \u200b1.8%, shrinking Canada’s trade surplus with its main trading partner by more than 40% \u200bto C$5.9 billion. <\/p>\n
Stuart Bergman, chief economist at Export Development Canada, \u200bthe country’s official export credit agency, said that keeping the share of Canada’s exports going to the U.S. \u200cbelow 70% was an encouraging trend. <\/p>\n
“Sheer gravity alone pulls exporters \u200bto the U.S. market,” Bergman said, \u200bbut added that there have been concerted efforts to shift some of that gravity to other markets, citing the increase in agricultural exports, especially canola to China and Japan. <\/p>\n
Year-to-date share of exports to the U.S. is around 68%, down from 73% in the year-ago \u200bperiod. <\/p>\n
Exports to countries other than the United States \u200crose 7.4%, while imports increased 2.8%, leaving Canada with a non-U.S. trade deficit of C$5.1 billion, down from C$6.1 billion \u200bin the prior month. <\/p>\n
The Canadian dollar was trading firmer, up 0.35% to C$1.3792 against the U.S. dollar, or 72.51 U.S. \u200bcents. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Dale Smith; Editing by Sharon Singleton) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Adds metal products and percentage contribution in paragraph 9 to reflect that both metal and energy were responsible…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1042599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,417548,417547,417546,79,5991,417545,67,132,68,2058],"class_list":["post-1042598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-c3-57-billion","tag-c4-2-billion","tag-c769-million","tag-economy","tag-july","tag-promit-mukherjee-ottawa","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117212078823555874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}