Canada has been on a mission to diversify its exports in the eighteen months since Donald Trump’s re-election. So, how are we doing on that front?
The mid-year report card on exports and imports came out this week. June marked the fourth consecutive month where our exports have gone up overall, increasing our trade surplus with the world by a couple hundred million dollars.
Now, there are some nuances in this story. First of all is the Canadian dollar. As it falls, our exports grow increasingly competitive globally because most world trade is denominated in US dollars so, when the Canadian dollar depreciates, we get more of those dollars in the deal.
The Canadian dollar took a hammering in June – down 1.7-cents – so our export numbers went up. But in volume terms we were still making progress – we sold more stuff in June even with the currency fluctuations.
And what about diversification? Exports to the US barely changed in June but sales to the UK were up nearly 30-percent. Korea took 20-percent more and Japan was up about 12-percent.
