Canada’s international trade is consistently vibrant and dynamic. Here is a report for 2024 on Canada’s export and import activities. In 2024, a year marked by continued struggles due to adverse economic fluctuations. Let’s see how it impacts the Canadian market. Have a look at it to see opportunities and barriers:
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About the market
Canada’s international trade market is a key player in the global market, with extensive relationships across all continents, ensuring that export and import activities operate smoothly and maintain their high value. In 2024, one point of impact directly on trade value also came from the depreciation of the Canadian dollar, which led to higher competitiveness in exports for Canada but increased prices when importing goods counted in CAD.
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Export side
For the export side, in the last 10 years, excluding 2022, Canada always had a high export value (see Figure 1) and its main regional partners in 2024 are the U.S ($547.4 billion), Indo-Pacific ($75.5 billion), and Europe & Central Asia ($68.8 billion) (Figure 2). Main goods Canada exports to the world are energy products, metal, non-metallic mineral products, waste and scrap of metal, unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals, motor vehicles and parts, farm, fishing, and intermediate food products, etc. All have positive signals, with total merchandise exports increasing by 1% in 2023. Some export products saw a significant increase, contributing to the country’s overall export value. Ten (10) main partners accounted for the export value of Canada, with only a few of them decreasing in total value, almost having increased (Figure 3) showing that Canada exports are on the good path as of 2024, the export overseas (not including the U.S) reached $296 billion, a year earlier for the target (Figure 4). However, due to currency depreciation, the volume may not increase too much.
Figure 1: Canada’s Export from 2014 to Q1/2025 (Tradeimex.in, 2025)
Figure 2: Trade partners of Canada’s export (StatCan, 2025)
Figure 3: Total exports and total imports of Canada in Nov and Dec/2024 (StatCan, 2025)
Figure 4: overseas goods and services exports of Canada (Government of Canada, 2025)
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Import side
On the import side, Canada typically imports consumer goods, farm, fishing, and intermediate food products, among others. In 2024, the total import value increased by 1.9%. Although the trade deficit was notably high, rising from $610 million in 2023 to $7.2 billion in 2024, it was partially due to currency depreciation that increased import prices (Figure 5). The import volumes saw a growth for farm, fishing & intermediate food products, basic & industrial chemical, plastic, & rubber products, and forestry products & building & packaging material (+5.8%, +5.7% and 5.6% perspectively) while some others decreased like metal ores and non-metallic minerals (around 10.7%)
Figure 5: Export and import price and volume index (Government of Canada, 2025)
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Conclusion
In 2024, Canada’s international trade demonstrated both resilience and sensitivity to global economic dynamics. A depreciating Canadian dollar supported export competitiveness while driving up the value of merchandise exports in Canadian dollars. However, higher import costs and slower growth in export volumes revealed the limitations of currency-driven trade gains. Despite these challenges, Canada maintained a stable trade balance with key partners, particularly the U.S. Overall, 2024 underscored the importance of diversification, productivity investment, and strategic trade policies in strengthening Canada’s long-term position in global markets.
Sources: Government of Canada (2025) and StatCan (2025)