Types of Trade Data Available in Canada

There is a great deal of detail available for international trade in goods; however, data on trade in services and on interprovincial trade are more sparse.

Canadian international export of merchandise data are available monthly by

• Province of origin
• Country of destination
• Mode of transport
• Type of commodity
• Value
• Quantity

Canadian import data are available monthly by

• Country of origin
• Province of clearance
• Mode of transport
• Commodity
• Value
• Quantity

Import data by province of consumption are not available. This is mainly due to the difficulty of determining the final destination of the goods.

Customs-Based Data

These export and import figures are customs-based data derived from customs documents and compiled by Statistics Canada. The commodities are classified based on the Harmonized System, with an 8-digit code for exports and a 10-digit code for imports.

Data are available for free from Industry Canada's Trade Data Online as well as from Statistics Canada's Canadian International Merchandise Trade Database and custom data extracts are available from BC Stats. Some export data are available on the Trade data page. Sub-provincial data are not available other than by port of clearance.

Balance of Payments

Data on trade in services and inter-provincial trade are not available on a Customs Basis; however there is some information under our Economic Accounts page. These data are on a Balance of Payments basis and will differ from customs-based data.

See Statistics Canada for an explanation of the differences between Balance of Payments and Customs Basis measures of international merchandise trade

Some of these data are available on the Trade Data page.

There is very little commodity detail available on interprovincial trade. There are some data from the Input/Output Accounts, but it is generally two to three years out of date.

Provincial data on trade in services are also pretty scarce although there may be data available for specific industries from Statistics Canada surveys.

Total service exports and imports by country of destination/origin are available only for Canada as a whole.

• View Statistics Canada table 36-10-0007-01

Seasonally Adjusted Data

Seasonally adjusted data for international trade in goods are available for Canada from Statistics Canada and BC Stats produces seasonally adjusted international export numbers for British Columbia.

• View seasonally adjusted data for B.C. exports by major commodity group (XLSX) on the BC Data Catalogue