Canada, the Americas and the World: economic linkages in the new era of globalisation

Throughout its history Canada has been heavily engaged with the international economy, an involvement that reached new heights during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Although the USA has been overwhelmingly Canada's most important trading and investment partner, the intensity of economic engagement between the two countries has varied during the past thirty-five years or so. Three distinct phases of these economic linkages are identified in this article. The limited extent of Canada's integration with the non-US Western hemisphere is also explored, and a brief examination made of the evolving structure of Canadian exports, changes in international payments and recent intimations of de-industrialisation.