OTTAWA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Statistics Canada announced on Tuesday that it is postponing the release of its international trade data for September 2025, citing disruptions caused by the partial U.S. federal government shutdown.
The release for Canadian international merchandise trade and international trade in services was originally scheduled for Nov. 4. A new release date has not yet been set.
In a statement, the agency explained that it sources its data on Canadian exports to the United States from the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB). The partial shutdown has affected USCB operations, resulting in key data files not being transmitted to Statistics Canada.
"As a result, Statistics Canada must postpone the release of merchandise trade data for the September reference month, as well as the release of monthly trade in services, which depends on complete merchandise trade data," the statement read.
Statistics Canada confirmed that its third-quarter releases for Canada's balance of international payments and gross domestic product, scheduled for Nov. 27 and 28, respectively, will be published as planned. However, if the September trade data is still unavailable, the agency will produce special estimates for that month's exports to the United States, relying in part on modeled data.
The agency also warned that planned release dates for subsequent months could be affected depending on the duration of the shutdown. It noted that a 35-day U.S. government shutdown in 2018-2019 resulted in delays to five consecutive monthly international merchandise trade publications. ■