Canada's Economy

Trade has always been central to Canada. Buying and selling goods is what drives the economy forward.

Without trade with other countries, Canadians could not keep their standard of living.

Canada started free trade with the United States in 1988.

In 1994 Mexico joined as a partner in the wider North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Service industries give people many kinds of jobs, for example in transportation, education, health care, construction, banking, communications, retail, tourism and government.

Manufacturing industries make goods to sell at home and abroad, such as paper, high-tech equipment, aerospace technology, cars, machinery, food and clothing.

Natural resource industries are forestry, fishing, agriculture, mining and energy. They have been important in Canada's history and growth.

The United States is Canada's largest international trading partner.

Canada and the U.S. are close: each country is the other's biggest trading partner.

The trade between Canada and the U.S. is the biggest two-country trading relationship in the world.

Every year Canada sells billions of dollars of goods abroad, including energy, industrial goods, machinery, equipment, automotive products, farm, fish and forest products, and consumer goods.

Millions of people cross the Canada-U.S. border safely each year. It is traditionally called "the world's longest undefended border".

The Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington, stands for the close ties and shared interests of Canada and the U.S. It carries the words "children of a common mother".