Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in 1984 (and a quarter of all global exports). Imports from Asia lagged
behind in total value but showed a similar pattern, increasing from $400
million in 1971 to $3.6 billion in 1984, and as a share of all imports through
BC from 30 percent to 46 percent. Japan dominated the market through-
out, source of 75 percent of Asian imports and 34 percent of all imports
through British Columbia ports in 1984. In an important symbolic event in
the late 1960s Canadian trade with Japan exceeded trade with the United
Kingdom and a further momentous statistical moment in 1988 saw imports
from Japan through BC temporarily surpass the flow from the United States
(Barnes et al. 1992).
The vagaries of government statistical collection do not provide a con-
sistent data set, and more recent trends are based on exports and imports
that have origins or destinations in British Columbia alone (Government
of Canada 2007). They do show, however, a significant re-distribution
among Asia Pacific trading partners. Exports to Japan have been flat since
the early 1990s, reflecting the deep recession that has limited demand for
BC raw materials. Following the Free Trade Agreement with the United
States in 1989 and the North American FTA in 1994, adding Mexico, a
continental regime has returned to merchandise export flows, with the
United States exceeding Japan as a customer by a ratio of over four to one
by 2006 (Figure 2.3). China, behind Belgium in ninth rank in 1992, has
moved forward to third rank by 2006, though it remains far behind Japan
as an export destination. It is notable that the countries of South Korea
and Taiwan follow China in fourth and fifth ranks so that Asia Pacific
includes four of the top five destinations of BC exports. More substantial
are the variations in imports (Figure 2.4). Reversing the pattern of the
1970s, BC is now a substantial net importer from Asia Pacific. While
imports from Japan have stagnated and US imports not quite doubled,
the value of merchandise entering BC from China has risen every year,
and more than 20-fold from 1992 to 2006, raising it to second rank ahead
of Japan. Next comes South Korea, though consistent with the continen-
talization of trade, Mexico in fifth place eclipsed Taiwan for the first time
in 2006.
A clear trade asymmetry has developed between Asia Pacific and British
Columbia. Not only have export values fallen behind imports, but also
while all but one of the top ten import sources in 2006 were countries in the
Pacific Rim, Europe still accounted for four of the ten leading destinations
for exports.
6
Data assembled by the Asia Pacific Foundation (2007) indi-
cate that investment patterns reveal a failure by Canadian business to reach
deeply into Asia. Over a quarter (27 percent) of Canadian Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) in Asia and Australasia in 2005 was channelled to
Australia, associated no doubt with compatible mining and other raw mate-
rial enterprises, while FDI in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea
