Explanatory Notes — Value

In Trade Data Online, you can choose to display the value of trade as follows:

• in Canadian dollars
• in U.S. dollars
• as percentage of the total

The only exceptions are that "export intensity" is always expressed as a percentage, and "trade balance" is available in dollars only.

These values are:

• in current dollars (unadjusted for inflation)
• not seasonally adjusted
• refreshed to reflect revisions issued by Statistics Canada or the U.S. Census Bureau.

---

Rounding

Depending on the report or graph, values may be rounded. When this occurs, the display will clearly indicate whether the values are in thousands of dollars or millions of dollars.

---

Currency Conversion

Both Canadian and U.S. data are available in either current Canadian or U.S. dollars.

Canadian data are obtained (from Statistics Canada) in Canadian dollars and are converted to U.S. dollars using the monthly and annual noon exchange rate averages as reported by the Bank of Canada.

U.S. data are obtained (from the U.S. Census Bureau) and converted to Canadian dollars using the same exchange rates as above.

---

Quantities

No statistics are available on this site with regards to the quantities of goods traded.

In the case of Trade by Industry, this is simply not possible because of the mix of units (numbers, kilograms, liters, square meters and so on). Even in cases such as the Footwear Industry, where the units might be assumed to be in pairs, parts are shipped in various numbers.

In the case of Trade by Product, some information on quantities is collected by customs. However,

• the quantities are not recorded for all goods.
• when collected, the units used for a given product may differ between imports and exports, Canada and the U.S. and from year to year.
• when collected, the information is recorded against specialized classifications that are more detailed than the Harmonised System (HS) employed on this site. See the section on more detailed data for a full explanation and links to data sources.