From: utzoo!utcsrgv!pfps
Newsgroups: can.general
Title: Re: Isn't a huge trade surplus good for something?
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1062
Posted: Fri Feb 18 09:38:49 1983
Received: Fri Feb 18 09:48:34 1983
References: utcsrgv.1060

Canada's recent huge trade surplus is good but not very good.

The reason for the surplus is that Canada's imports have
decreased dramatically (indicating a sick economy here)
while exports have decreased but not nearly as much
(in this case, not indicating that economies in other
countries are not as sick as here).  Another problem
with Canada's trade surplus is that our exports are
mostly raw materials (such as wheat, minerals, etc.).
I am willing to bet that Canada's exports of manufactured
goods are down just as much as our imports are.

To see why we can have high unemployment while keeping
up on our exports just look at Inco's case.  As you know
Inco has a lot of people laid off.  However, it is still
exporting (although not as much as before) because it has
a huge stockpile of exportable material available.