peterr (02/18/83)
One of the things that puzzles me is how the media blithely reports that Canada has had record trade surplus figures during the last year and makes no comment as to whether this is good or bad. One would think it is good, and one would expect the Opposition to scold the government for Canada's high relative unemployment compared to countries with trade deficits. Someone is missing something somewhere, and the media certainly hasn't told me what it all means. If someone knows what it does mean, I'd be grateful if they'd post a discussion of it to this group. p.rowley, UoT.
pfps (02/18/83)
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.