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The Numbers Behind the World’s Closest Trade Relationship

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The Numbers Behind the World's Closest Trade Relationship

Numbers Behind the World’s Closest Trade Relationship

Whether we’re discussing the ancient merchants that traversed the legendary Silk Road, or the transfer of goods across modern border lines, trade has always been about building close relationships.

There are many examples of strong and mutually-beneficial trade relationships all throughout history, but one doesn’t have to look far back to find what could be considered the closest bilateral relationship ever known: the one between the United States and Canada.

These two countries are each other’s best customers, and they share the world’s longest international border (5,525 miles long). They are both Western democracies with shared cultural heritage and similar standards of living – and each day, the two countries exchange a whopping US$1.7 billion in goods and services.

Our infographic today highlights numbers and tangible examples behind this lengthy relationship between the U.S. and Canada.

America’s Best Customer

Despite China surpassing Canada in 2015 to become America’s largest trading partner in aggregate, the majority of Chinese trade comes in the form of imports ($462B imports vs. $115B exports). That means China is actually only the third-largest customer of American-made goods, buying about 8% of total U.S. exports in 2016.

The largest buyer of American goods is still north of the border – in fact, Canadians buy about 18% of total U.S. exports, which is more than twice that of China.

Here’s what Canada buys from the U.S.:

RankGoodsValue ($US)
#1Vehicles & Auto Parts$48.1 billion
#2Machinery$40.0 billion
#3Electronic equipment$23.9 billion
#4Mineral fuels including oil$15.5 billion
#5Plastics$12.3 billion
#6Live trees and plants$9.0 billion
#7Medical, technical equipment$8.1 billion
#8Aircraft, spacecraft$7.4 billion
#9Iron or steel products$5.5 billion
#10Furniture, lighting, signs$4.9 billion

Canada is the most important international customer for 36 states – and every day the equivalent trade of all U.S./Japan happens over just one bridge (Ambassador Bridge) between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON.

Canada’s Best Customer

Americans return the favor in a big way: an incredible 76% of Canadian exports are bought by Americans.

Here’s what the U.S. buys from Canada:

RankGoodsValue ($US)
#1Vehicles & Auto Parts$60.1 billion
#2Mineral fuels including oil$57.6 billion
#3Machinery$22.3 billion
#4Live trees and plants$18.9 billion
#5Plastics$10.9 billion
#6Wood$10.1 billion
#7Electronic equipment$9.4 billion
#8Gems, precious metals$7.3 billion
#9Aluminum$7.0 billion
#10Paper$6.1 billion

It’s estimated that 78% of Canadian exports to the U.S. are raw materials, parts and components, and services used to create other goods in the United States.

Close Ties

Through many years of trade, the supply chains between the two countries have become highly integrated.

Much of the time, the U.S. is buying raw materials and intermediate goods, which get used in final products destined for domestic and global markets. Many of those even get sold directly back to Canada.

This could be buying Canadian crude to reduce reliance on OPEC, importing low cost hydro electricity during times of heavy rainfall, or using Canada’s steady supply of aluminum to make more environmentally sound vehicles.

Few countries in the world have this kind of economic interdependence – and the history, integration, and value of goods traded makes this arguably the world’s closest bilateral trade relationship.

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Markets

Will Tesla Lose Its Spot in the Magnificent Seven?

We visualize the recent performance of the Magnificent Seven stocks, uncovering a clear divergence between the group’s top and bottom names.

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Will Tesla Lose Its Spot in the Magnificent Seven?

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In this graphic, we visualize the year-to-date (YTD) performance of the “Magnificent Seven”, a leading group of U.S. tech stocks that gained prominence in 2023 as the replacement of FAANG stocks.

All figures are as of March 12, 2024, and are listed in the table below.

RankCompanyYTD Change (%)
1Nvidia90.8
2Meta44.3
3Amazon16.9
4Microsoft12
5Google0.2
6Apple-6.7
7Tesla-28.5

From these numbers, we can see a clear divergence in performance across the group.

Nvidia and Meta Lead

Nvidia is the main hero of this show, setting new all-time highs seemingly every week. The chipmaker is currently the world’s third most valuable company, with a valuation of around $2.2 trillion. This puts it very close to Apple, which is currently valued at $2.7 trillion.

The second best performer of the Magnificent Seven has been Meta, which recently re-entered the trillion dollar club after falling out of favor in 2022. The company saw a massive one-day gain of $197 billion on Feb 2, 2024.

Apple and Tesla in the Red

Tesla has lost over a quarter of its value YTD as EV hype continues to fizzle out. Other pure play EV stocks like Rivian and Lucid are also down significantly in 2024.

Meanwhile, Apple shares have struggled due to weakening demand for its products in China, as well as the company’s lack of progress in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.

Investors may have also been disappointed to hear that Apple’s electric car project, which started a decade ago, has been scrapped.

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