Today, exports and I would like to thank Daniel de Munnik, Karyne Charbonneau and Laura Murphy for their help in preparing this speech. Not for publication before 8 November 2016 11:05 Eastern Time  -2imports represent about 65 per cent of our output, which is one of the highest ratios among the G7 countries (Chart 2).
Exports are not a goal in and of themselves, however, but a means to acquire imports for consumption and investment. Furthermore, trade generates global benefits because it encourages countries to specialize in the production of those goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage—in other words, in the goods and services they are relatively more efficient at producing.