Canadian imports from China hit $100B in 2022, setting new trade record: StatCan

The Statistics Canada data show Canada imported a record $100,027,968,000 of goods from China last year, up 16 per cent from $86 billion in 2021.

Trade between China and Canada hit record levels in 2022, with imports breaking the $100-billion mark for the first time, Statistics Canada data show.

Economists and others say businesses are looking beyond political tensions between the two countries, as demand ramps up and established supply chains reassert themselves in a post-pandemic world.

James Brander, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder school of business, said in the absence of government policies directing otherwise — such as those currently restricting trade with Russia — companies would not prioritize politics.

“Of course, yes, there are tensions. But economic or trade flows, and economic activity in general, isn’t affected very much by the political tensions unless there is some explicit policy,” said Brander.

The Statistics Canada data show Canada imported a record $100,027,968,000 of goods from China last year, up 16 per cent from $86 billion in 2021.

The biggest category of imports in 2022 was consumer goods, at $31 billion, followed by electronic and electrical equipment, worth $28 billion.

The data show Canadian exports to China also reached a historic high of $27.9 billion, recovering from a slump that followed the 2018 arrest of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and China’s detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

China last year lifted a three-year ban on Canadian canola that had been imposed after the arrest of Meng, who has since returned to China.