United States, Mexico, Canada Trade Agreement

A few weeks ago, the United States, Mexico, and Canada renegotiated and updated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is now named USMCA. Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom’s constitutional monarchy. Therefore, Canada’s chief of state is Queen Elizabeth II. Meanwhile, Canada’s head of government is its elected Prime Minister, currently Justin Trudeau. Today, with a total of 9.98 million square kilometers, Canada’s is slightly larger than the United States and the second largest country in the world, after Russia.

United States, Mexico, Canada Trade Agreement

Located along the northernmost third of North America, Canada has 8.893 kilometers of shared borer with the United States, both the lower 48 and Alaska. Likewise, Canada has the world’s longest coastline totaling 202.080 kilometers, mainly along the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Currently, the country has a total population of 36 million citizens, with an average age of 42 years. Furthermore, about 81% of Canada’s population lives in an urban setting, notably the city of Toronto with some 6.1 million inhabitants.

The country’s national annual gross domestic product (GDP) is US$1.8 trillion (PPP) and the national economy has experienced positive growth in recent years. The Canadian economy is divided into 2% agriculture, 28% manufacturing, and 70% services. Meanwhile, the national labor force is divided into 3% working in the agriculture industry, 20% working in the industrial and construction sector, and 77% working in services. Similarly, the national agriculture industry utilizes about 7% of the national territory, while another 34% is forested. In terms of natural resources, Canada has iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, potash, diamonds, silver, timber, coal, petroleum, natural gas, and hydropower. Within manufacturing, the national industry is focused on transportation equipment, chemicals, processed minerals, food production, wood and paper processing, petroleum refining, and natural gas transformation. Simultaneously, the country’s agricultural industry has as main products wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and fish.

In terms of trade, Canada is the world’s 11th largest export economy. During 2016, the country imported US$388 billion worth of goods and exported US$364 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of US$24 billion. Furthermore, that same year, Canada’s main export, representing 13% or US$49 billion of the country’s total, were cars. On the other hand, the country’s main import, representing 6.8% or US$26.4 billion of all international purchases, were also cars. Meanwhile, Canada’s main trading partners are the United States, China, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union.

In recent years, the average per capita protein intake of animal origin amongst the Canadian population has been 55 grams daily. Simultaneously, land distribution in the country has evolved throughout the last half century. Back in 1961, permanent pastures and meadows in Canada covered 17 million hectares, while arable land covered 40.8 million hectares and permanent crops covered 11.9 million hectares. More recently, by 2016, permanent pastures and meadows had increased to cover 14.3 million hectares, while arable land represented 43.8 hectares and permanent crops accounted for 4.6 million hectares.

(Read more about Macroeconomics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)