Canadian international merchandise trade, December 2020

In December, Canada's merchandise exports rose 1.5%, with energy product exports posting the largest increase. Imports fell 2.3%, mainly because of lower imports of consumer goods. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $3.6 billion in November to $1.7 billion in December, the lowest deficit since June 2020.

For the year 2020, Canada's trade deficit totalled $36.2 billion, more than double the deficit observed in 2019. Total merchandise exports fell 12.3% in 2020, while imports were down 8.6%. By comparison, during the last major economic downturn, in 2009, annual merchandise exports dropped 24.6% and imports fell 15.7%...

This has been excerpted from a 5 February 2021 release by Statistics Canada.