Wood, Wheat, Wheels and the Web

The two world wars accelerated two important trends: the move from rural to urban life and the adoption of new technologies in the form of mechanization and electrification. [...] You can see in the chart the spike in trade to the United States after the first GATT agreement in the late 1940s and the steady rise in the importance of the United States with subsequent trade agreements. [...] More importantly for Canada, the changes in China greatly increased the global demand for commodities as inputs for the production of manufactured goods and the construction of transport systems, housing and other urban amenities (Chart 10). [...] The declining impact is most clearly seen in China, which has started to move up the value chain and produce intermediate goods domestically rather than import them.15 In terms of factors more specific to Canada that have held back our exports in the wake of the Great Recession, the most important are related to our ability to produce and export non-commodity goods, which represent about 60 per ce [...] Our non-commodity goods exports were harder hit than in any post-war recession, decreasing by about 17 per cent between the third quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.16 A big part of that decrease was the shutdown of a substantial portion of Canadian auto production.17 In addition, from the peak in 2008 to the trough in 2010, the number of exporters fell nearly 20 per cent, dropping by