Canada Has Lost Its Place As The World's No.1 Exporter To The United States

The change has come amid a tectonic shift in the global economic plates, which has lead to currency revaluing and slowing first world economies. The strong appreciation of the Canadian dollar against its U.S. counterpart has had a major impact on the decline in exports to the U.S., where demand for increasingly expensive goods has understandably fallen in the slowing economy. The Canadian dollar rose 19% against the U.S. dollar in 2007, ending the year at US$1.02. Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets said the wealth and income effects in the U.S. of falling home prices and weakening job growth were damping consumer demand. He said the Chinese export market managed to beat Canada's, despite the recent "firestorm" over unsafe Chinese products and toy recalls. The U.S. trade deficit with China ballooned to US$256.3-billion in 2007 -- the largest bilateral trade imbalance ever, Mr. Porter said. ... http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=308850

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