TORONTO - Canada is headed towards the largest automotive deficit in its history, according to a new study by the Canadian Auto Workers union.
The study notes that auto exports and imports from January to July this year indicate that Canada imported $4.3 billion worth of parts and finished vehicles than it exported.
The report, "Canada's Deteriorating Automotive Trade Performance," says more free trade agreements could damage Canada's auto sector further. The CAW singled out Korea in particular. In a press release, the CAW claims Korea sells "183 times as much automotive value (to Canada) as we sell there."
The CAW wants Canada to drop plans for a free trade agreement with that country.
"Why on earth our own government would now reward Korea with even easier access to our markets is utterly beyond me," CAW President Buzz Hargrove noted in a press release on Monday.
"A free trade deal with Korea will take a bad situation and make it worse ... The government should cancel these talks."
Canada also has $6 billion trade deficit with Japan, the country's largest. Ninety per cent of Canada's deficit is due to bilateral deficits with with Japan, Mexico, Germany, Korea, and China.
With files from the Canadian Press
