In 2017, nearly 1 in 10 firms in the wholesale and manufacturing sectors purchased goods abroad and sold them 'as-is' in foreign markets without the goods physically entering Canada.

This activity—known as merchanting or direct trading—is not currently captured in traditional international merchandise trade statistics; therefore, it may be misclassified as domestic wholesaling activities in the Canadian system of macroeconomic accounts statistics.

The information presented in this release is the result of a new initiative launched by Statistics Canada to better understand the involvement of Canadian firms in global production and distribution chain activities. The findings will also help the agency produce more robust estimates of international trade as measured in Canada's balance of international payments and gross domestic product.

This first release analyzes the types of Canadian firms involved in merchanting activities. Subsequent releases will cover other aspects, such as goods for processing and global production and distribution...

This was excerpted from a 23 January 2019 release by Statistics Canada.