Canada Has 28 Billion Trade Deficit In Manufactured Goods

However, it also calls for a variety of other measures to deal with the crisis, including increasing investment in skills, infrastructure, research and development, and changing government purchasing policies to favour domestic suppliers. Canada has lost 291,000 manufacturing jobs over the past five years, while the deficit in the trade of manufactured goods has exploded to what was $28 billion in 2006, says the report, which blames the combination of falling exports and increasing import penetration. It accuses policy-makers of complacency toward what it says is a crisis in a key industry that, despite the loss in jobs and exports, still accounts for 16 per cent of the country's annual economic output. "To a considerable degree, the manufacturing jobs crisis is shrugged off by decision makers as of no great concern, given our unemployment rate and booming energy and minerals sector," it said, echoing a concern expressed recently by Manufacturers and Exporters Canada, the association representing the industry. ... The Informetrica study estimates the positive impact of a $10-billion, or 3.3 per cent increase, in manufacturing exports over four years would generate 67,000 new jobs directly plus 48,500 spinoff jobs, three-quarters of which would be in the services sector. It says a decline of that magnitude would have the same effect in the other direction. The incentive for government to do something, according to the report, is that such an increase in direct and indirect jobs, and in manufacturing activity, would also generate enough tax revenue to reduce the debts of all levels of government by $8 billion, and fund $2 billion a year in new spending on government services, creating a further 26,500 public-sector jobs. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=b8462068-ec51-4712-b4c7-c5d880ff9a31

Note: http://www.canada.com/t...