» Home        Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor and its implications to Canada-China trade Prof. Yimin Zhang, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), China Abstract Canada is an open economy with heavy reliance on international trade. Over the last decade, the trade pattern of Canada has experienced significant changes, especially with China and other Asia-pacific economies. Now China has become the second largest 8/8 trading partner of Canada, only after the US. In 2005, China was the fourth largest export market for Canada, after the US, the UK and Japan, and the second largest source of imports. Most of the commodity trade between Canada and China are carried by ocean shipping. From 1994 to 2004, exports to China via Vancouver port increased by more than 300% and imports from China via Vancouver port increased by more than 1000%. In 1999, there were 1.6 million tons of containers shipped between Canada and China while in 2004, trade has increased to 5.1 million tons of containers. This tremendous growth in the trade, however, has met substantial constraint on the handling capacity of the ports in the two countries. For Vancouver port, handling capacity at present is only 1.7 million containers per year, compared with 12 million containers per year in Shanghai and 18 million containers per year in Hong Kong. This paper will examine the changing trade patterns between Canada and China, from both the growth in total trading volume and the composition of the commodities that are flown between the two countries, and try to identify the trend for future trade. Based on the trend of trade, bottle neck of port facilities and investment on the Asia-pacific gateways and corridors will be assessed from the view point of Canada-China trade relations. « Back to Abstracts  ©2007 Center for Transportation Studies, UBC. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy