Canada's exports rose 3.2% in March, led in part by higher exports of energy products. Imports increased 2.5%, mainly on higher imports of consumer goods. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $3.4 billion in February to $3.2 billion in March...
Imports of consumer goods increase
Total imports rose 2.5% in March to $52.3 billion. Imports were up in 8 of 11 sections, with consumer goods posting the largest increase. Import volumes rose 1.3%, while prices were up 1.2%.
Imports of consumer goods increased 6.7% in March to a record $10.9 billion. Imports of clothing, footwear and accessories (+22.9%) led the widespread increase, mainly on higher imports of clothing from Bangladesh and Cambodia. Despite the monthly gain, imports of clothing, footwear and accessories edged down 0.4% in the first quarter of 2019 compared with the last quarter of 2018.
Imports of motor vehicles and parts rose 4.9% to $9.9 billion in March, largely due to higher imports of commercial trucks.
Partially offsetting the overall gain in March, imports of aircraft fell 50.7% due to a slowdown in deliveries of airliners from the United States. This follows two consecutive strong monthly increases for aircraft imports...
This has been excerpted from a 9 May 2019 release by Statistics Canada.