AI Analysis: International merchandise trade for all countries and by Principal Trading Partners, monthly

Executive Summary

Canada's international merchandise trade has grown substantially over nearly three decades, with exports reaching $60,569.3M CAD and imports at $59,688.3M CAD in January 2026, reflecting a near-balanced trade position. The United States dominates bilateral trade, averaging $32,478M in monthly exports and $24,111M in monthly imports, while the dataset's heavy right-skew — mean of $2,570M versus median of $195M — underscores the outsized influence of a few major trading relationships. The data captures key disruptions including the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, both followed by strong recoveries.

Key Findings

• Canada's monthly merchandise trade reached near-parity in January 2026, with exports at $60,569.3M CAD slightly exceeding imports at $59,688.3M CAD.
• The United States is Canada's dominant trading partner by a wide margin, with average monthly exports of $32,478M and imports of $24,111M — more than 7x the next largest bilateral partner.
• Trade values are heavily right-skewed across 91,089 records, with a mean of $2,570M but a median of only $194.9M and a standard deviation of $8,836.4M, driven by large-volume flows with major partners.
• The middle 50% of all trade values fall between just $72.6M and $552.5M CAD, indicating that most trading relationships are relatively modest in scale compared to top-tier partners.
• 6,626 negative values exist in the dataset, all representing Trade Balance entries, with Canada running a slight median trade deficit of -$57.0M across all partners and months.
• The gap between the highest average monthly trade flow (All Countries – Export at $41,966M) and the lowest (Iraq – Export at $12.8M) spans more than 3,000x, highlighting extreme disparity across trading partners.
• Notable disruptions in 2008–2009 and 2020 are clearly visible in the 29-year trade trend, yet no statistical outliers were flagged in imports or exports using a 2.5× IQR threshold, confirming these dips were broad cyclical events rather than data anomalies.