Canada trade slows down to $4.5 billion deficit in August, second-largest on record

Canada’s trade balance just fell off a ￰0￱ August, the country posted a $4.5 billion trade deficit, making it the second-largest on ￰1￱ only time it’s ever been worse was back in ￰2￱ time, the blame sits squarely on gold, or more specifically, a double whammy of plunging gold exports and rising imports of the exact same ￰3￱ to data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada, the August shortfall widened from July’s already ugly $2.7 billion, which had been quietly revised ￰4￱ latest gap was wider than every economist forecast in Bloomberg’s ￰5￱ wasn’t even ￰6￱ the issue? Gold ￰7￱ of unwrought gold dropped 11.8%, while imports of the metal were so high they singlehandedly masked a 1% fall in overall ￰8￱ to the US take a hit as gold skews trade data Canada’s total exports fell 3% in August, snapping a four-month streak of ￰9￱ slump hit eight out of eleven major sectors, dragging the entire number down.

Imports, on the other hand, rose 0.9%, but only because of ￰10￱ that spike, they’d be down ￰11￱ to the United States, Canada’s largest trade partner, also ￰12￱ dropped 3.4%, again partly due to less gold leaving the ￰13￱ brought the goods trade surplus with the US down to $4.6 billion, compared to $5.3 billion in July. There’s been a messy pattern all ￰14￱ jumped early in 2025 as companies rushed to ship goods ahead of expected tariffs from ￰15￱ once those duties kicked in during Q2, shipments ￰16￱ with all that noise, exports so far this year are still up 0.3% compared to the same stretch in ￰17￱ look at volume: exports were down 2.8%, and import volumes dropped 0.3% in ￰18￱ even when stripping out price changes, the movement of goods clearly ￰19￱ meets Trump as economy struggles with tariffs The trade chaos couldn’t come at a worse ￰20￱ Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday to talk tariffs and trade ￰21￱ let’s be honest, the stakes are high.

Canada’s jobless rate is 7.1%, the highest in nearly a decade, and half a percentage point higher than it was at the start of the ￰22￱ economy’s slowing down. Trump’s tariffs on cars, steel, and aluminum, three major export categories for Canada , are part of the ￰23￱ there’s talk of slapping new duties on softwood and lumber, which would be another body ￰24￱ are some of the most imported goods from Canada into the US. “Inu Manak”, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “It makes a difference to have face-to-face time with Trump.” Carney needs to use this meeting to push ￰25￱ public mood is sour. A recent Abacus Data poll of 1,500 Canadians showed people are more worried than ever about inflation and the economy .

“There is a necessity on the part of the (Canadian) government to shift away from so much of the focus on Trump and being anti-Trump and really think about what they can do to improve the lives of Canadians day-to-day,” said ￰26￱ Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, added that US tariffs can still cause higher prices in Canada, because a lot of goods are built using raw materials that cross the border multiple times. That’s why Carney wants sector-by-sector exemptions, hoping to soften the blow and protect ￰27￱ seen where it ￰28￱ in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.