Import Intensity of Exports

Topic Box from the 2008 Eighth Annual Benchmark Report

The BC Progress Board recently asked BC Stats to undertake an examination of the embedded imports in BC's exported goods. A study, "The Import Content of Exports: A British Columbia Perspective" and a summary article are available on the BC Stats website.

Import content in exports is of interest because only the value-added portion of exports — after removing the value of imports — is of benefit to the exporting juridsiction. The iPod is a useful example. Trade statistics list it as made in China but its components come from other Asian countries and it is only assembled in China.

Although the full value of the export is credited to China only about five percent of the value is generated there.

Among the provinces, BC has relatively low import content in its exports due to its economic structure. Resource commodities generally have a far smaller import content than manufactured ones and BC's exports are predominantly resource based.

The difference between gross exports and value-added exports (those with imports removed) has been consistent in BC, ranging between five and six percentage points of GDP between 1996 and 2004.