Browse "Trade"

Countertrade, see BARTER.

Customs and excise, taxes on goods, are one of the world's oldest sources of government revenue. Customs duties are applied on imported products while excise duties and taxes are generally applied on goods of domestic manufacture, notably liquor and tobacco.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on July 5, 1999. Partner content is not updated.

In Quebec, they call it referendum fever. And of all those who fell into its grip last week, perhaps no one was more surprised than René Lepage, director of the community health clinic in the lower St. Lawrence River town of Matane.

The dollar became the official monetary unit of the Province of Canada on 1 January 1858 and the official currency of Canada after Confederation.

Exports are goods or services which a nation sells to other nations. During 1996 Canadian sales abroad amounted to $330 billion, consisting of $268 billion (or 81.2%) merchandise, $39 billion (or 11.8%) services and nearly $18 billion (or 5.4%) investment income.

A free trade area as defined by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is "a group of two or more customs territories in which duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce... are eliminated on substantially all the trade between the constituent territories in products originating in such territories."

The fur trade began in the 1600s in what is now Canada. It continued for more than 250 years. Europeans traded with Indigenous people for beaver pelts. The demand for felt hats in Europe drove this business. The fur trade was one of the main reasons that Europeans explored and colonized Canada. It built relationships between Europeans and Indigenous peoples.

(This article is a plain-language summary of the fur trade. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry, Fur Trade in Canada.)

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was an international trade agreement. It was signed by 23 nations, including Canada, in 1947 and came into effect on 1 January 1948. It was refined over eight rounds of negotiations, which led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It replaced the GATT on 1 January 1995. The GATT was focused on trade in goods. It aimed to liberalize trade by reducing tariffs and removing quotas among member countries. Each member of the GATT was expected to open its markets equally to other member nations, removing trade discrimination. The agreements negotiated through GATT reduced average tariffs on industrial goods from 40 per cent (1947) to less than five per cent (1993). It was an early step towards economic globalization.

Global Affairs Canada (GAC) was originally founded as the Department of External Affairs in 1909 by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The operations, mandate and title of the department have evolved over the years. Although legally incorporated as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, its public designation since 2015 has been Global Affairs Canada.  The department is responsible for overseeing Canada’s international engagement, including diplomatic relations, providing consular services, promoting international trade and international law, and leading Canada’s international development and humanitarian assistance.

The gold standard is a monetary system in which the value of the currency unit (the Canadian dollar, for example) is defined in relation to the value of gold.

We’ve got free trade with Europe. Fantastic. Now how about all those trade restrictions between the provinces?

Imports consist of goods or services purchased from residents of foreign countries by Canadian residents. For 1996 these totalled $331 billion, or $1.7 billion more than all receipts from EXPORTS. The 3 major import divisions were merchandise of $233 billion (70.3%), services of $48 billion (14.

International economics consists of two main parts. The first is international trade theory and commercial policy. The second is international finance and balance of payments theory and policy.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the principal independent international financial agency concerned with the management of the international monetary system.

Since 1960 (except 1974) Canada has exported more commodities than it has imported and has had a merchandise trade surplus.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on September 30, 1996. Partner content is not updated.

Hudson's Bay Company found it necessary to devise a unit of value that would accommodate Aboriginal people's bartering to European bookkeeping methods

While Canada's dollar crisis reached a boiling point last week, Mexican Foreign Minister José Angel Gurria was in Canada for emergency meetings with bankers and senior federal ministers in an effort to shore up confidence in his country's own floundering currency.

He has been dubbed the Accidental President - a shy, uncharismatic technocrat who won the highest office in Mexico almost by default after the assassination of the chosen candidate. And ever since he was sworn in on Dec.