Canada records trade deficit, share of exports to U.S. hits non-pandemic low

BNN Bloomberg's Lindsay Biscaia discusses the latest Canada exports numbers amid trade tensions and treaty renegotiations.

OTTAWA - Canada recorded a smaller-than-expected trade deficit in October and the share of exports to the United States fell to its lowest ever non-pandemic level, official data indicated on Thursday.

Statistics Canada recorded a deficit of $583 million as imports increased at a greater pace than exports.

Analysts had expected a $1.36 billion deficit. Statistics Canada revised September’s surplus up to $243 million from an initial $153 million.

The deficit was the eighth in nine months in 2025, a year when U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on a raft of imports from Canada and the federal government stressed the need for trade diversification.

Exports to the United States in October accounted for 67.3 per cent of all exports, the lowest non-pandemic level since the current method of data calculation was established in 1997.

“There is definitely a pattern here. Companies are taking this quite seriously,” said Stuart Bergman, chief economist at Export Development Canada.

“Companies are looking at risk management and saying ‘We have got to start to think about diversification’,” he said in a phone interview.

Exports edged up by 2.1 per cent on strength in demand for unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals and their alloys. Excluding this product group, total exports fell 2.5 per cent.

After falling 4.3 per cent in September, the value of total imports rose 3.4 per cent in October. Imports of electronic and electrical equipment and parts jumped 10.2 per cent, pushed up by record shipments of computers and computer peripherals.

“Increases in imports of investment products bode well for domestic demand,” said Alexandra Brown, North America economist at Capital Economics.

Exports to the United States dipped by 4.1 per cent while imports increased by 5.3 per cent. As a result, Canada’s trade surplus with its neighbor fell to $4.8 billion from $8.4 billion in September.

Exports to non-U.S. nations jumped by 15.6 per cent to reach a record high, pushed up by shipments of gold to Britain and oil to China.

The release of the data was delayed from the planned Dec. 4 date due to a prolonged U.S. government shutdown. November’s data are due to be issued on Jan. 29.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren, editing by Dale Smith, Kirsten Donovan)