Canada just may be finding alternate markets and customers for our exports.
The latest trade figures show we are making headway in some markets in Europe while our two-way flow of goods with American buyers and sellers is showing signs of shrinking.
Although the value of total of Canadian goods destined for US buyers fell back in the year that ended in October, total exports for the 12 months ending in October actually went up a bit, even in the face of tariffs. But China and a couple European countries bought more, offsetting our declining North American activity.
Customers in the Netherlands, for example, doubled the amount they purchased from Canadian suppliers. Volume to the UK rose more than 90-percent. But it was not universal – exports to Italy were down by nearly 50-percent.
Even so, the US remains by far our most important market, almost 10-times the volume of the UK which is our Number Two customer. And these figures may be skewed a bit by one factor: precious metals. Our exports have more than doubled in the last year.
