Complaining about Canadian softwood-lumber and dairy products, President Trump seems unaware that Canada is currently the No. 1 market for 35 U.S. states. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, American exports of goods and services to Canada in 2015 supported an estimated 1.6 million jobs at home.
In 2016, Canadians purchased nearly US$322 billion (C$426 billion) in goods and services from the United States. Services exports from the United States were US$54 billion; the trade surplus on services was US$24.6 billion. The combined U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was U.S.$12.5 billion.
No two nations depend more on each other for their mutual prosperity and security than the United States and Canada.
Three-quarters of Canadian exports today go south to America. Vehicles, crude oil and auto parts comprised a third of our total exports to the United States last year. Cars, light trucks and auto parts exports sold for $79.8-billion, with bitumen and crude oil bringing $51.5-billion according to Canada customs data. Other top export products include lumber, natural gas, aluminum, and pharmaceutical/food products.
Some exports are essential to global supply chains. The current North American auto industry was built around NAFTA, with manufacturers, suppliers and retailers scattered across the continent.
The agreement allows auto parts to travel easily around North America, with some crossing the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican borders several times before being assembled into vehicles. Hasty changes to NAFTA could slow production, increase costs and ultimately make North American-made vehicles less competitive with ones made in Japan, Germany and South Korea.
The U.S. trade imbalance in goods and services with China last year, however, was US$3o9 billion, with Canada’s merchandise trade deficit with China being C$44 billion. Our two governments and others should thus initiate zero tolerance on unfair trading practices by Beijing, including currency manipulation of the yuan, the sale of consumer products made by forced labor, theft of intellectual property, and the continued refusal to honour its commitments made to the World Trade Organization on joining it in 2001.
In contrast, Japan, India, South Korea and the other rule-of-law democracies in Asia should be favored as trading partners in the region until China respects the rules of international commerce.
