Idaho
- 30,800 Idaho jobs depend on trade with Canada
- 1,800 Idahoans are employed by Canadian-owned businesses
- Idaho sells more goods to Canada than to any other country in the world
- Total Canada–Idaho goods trade: $2.5 billion
Hecla Mining’s Lucky Friday silver mine
Precious metals
An international company headquartered in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Hecla Miningoperates two mines within several hundred kilometers of the Canada–U.S. border, including the Lucky Friday mine in northern Idaho that employs approximately 250 people.
Hecla is the oldest publically-listed mining company in the United States and has long been known in North America as a quality producer of silver and gold.
Products sold to Canada from the Lucky Friday mine have a value of nearly $100 million. In addition, the mine’s concentrates are purchased in bulk by Teck Resources Ltd, a Canada–based mining company that processes concentrates at its refining facility located in Trail, BC.
Hecla Mining opened a Canadian office in Vancouver, BC in early 2007.
Bringing earth’s
resources to life
J.R. Simplot, the largest privately-owned company in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, relies on cross border trade with Canada for its success. With operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia and China, the border and free trade are critical to their global competitiveness.
An open and efficient border is essential to ensure the effective operations of Simplot’s Pocatello, ID plant,
where an important component (400,000 tons of sulfur) is sourced from Canada.
Raw materials are processed in Idaho and then exported back to Canada and the rest of the world, helping to employ 350 people locally. The Pocatello plant spends $20 million directly in goods and services, translating into $31 million which is re-invested into the eastern Idaho economy through employee salaries, wages and benefits.
For more information on Idaho’s trade with Canada, please contact:
Consulate General of Canada
1501 4th Avenue, Suite 600 • Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: (206) 443-1777 • Fax: (206) 443-9735
August 2012
Unless otherwise mentioned, all figures are based on 2011 data in U.S. dollars (US$1.00=C$0.9891). Statistics Canada: tourism, based on combined same-day and overnight travel (5/2012 release); goods & services trade (2/2012 release). World Institute for Strategic Economic Research (WISER): Canada’s export ranking (2/2012 release). U.S. Census Bureau: trade (2/2012 release). Services trade data not available at a sub-national level. Figures may not add up due to rounding. Produced by the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C.
Supplemental content
Idaho–Canada facts
Foreign export markets
- Largest export market: Canada
- % foreign-bound goods sold to Canada: 28%
Idaho sells more goods to Canada than to the state’s next two largest foreign markets combined
Merchandise trade
- Idaho exports to Canada: $1.6 billion
- Idaho imports from Canada: $883 million
- Bilateral trade: $2.5 billion
Jobs*
- # jobs that depend on trade with Canada: 30,800
- # employed by Canadian-owned businesses: 1,800
* Job numbers from trade (2010 data) and Canadian-owned businesses (2009 data) are from a 2012 study commissioned by the Government of Canada
Tourism
- Idaho visits by Canadians: 625,400, $84 million spent
- Idaho visits to Canada: 111,400, $36 million spent
Top exports
- Ores, slag & ash: $229 million
- Fertilizers: $138 million
- Furniture & bedding: $90 million
- Fuel oil: $64 million
- Wood & semi-finished wood products: $60 million
- Inorganic chemicals: $59 million
- Railway trains & rolling stock: $31 million
- Vegetables: $28 million
- Oil seeds: $27 million
- Adhesives, glues, gelatins & enzymes: $24 million
- Prepared vegetables: $22 million
- Perfumes, essential oils & toiletries: $19 million
- Plastics & plastic articles: $17 million
Top imports
- Fertilizers: $84 million
- Animal feed & food industry residues: $65 million
- Inorganic chemicals: $54 million
- Animal or vegetable fats, oils & waxes: $36 million
- Wood pulp: $35 million
- Fuel oil: $31 million
- Natural gas & other gases: $27 million
- Plastics & plastic articles: $26 million
- Softwood lumber: $26 million
- Wood & semi-finished wood products: $22 million
- Paper & paperboard: $21 million
- Salt, sulfur, earth & stone, lime & cement: $21 million
- Oil seeds: $15 million
Idaho exports $1.6 billion in goods to Canada
- Minerals & metals (42%)
- Chemicals (21%)
- Agriculture (9%)
- Equipment & machinery (7%)
- Transportation (5%)
- Forest products (5%)
- Other (11%)
Idaho imports $883 million in goods from Canada
- Minerals & metals (27%)
- Agriculture (18%)
- Chemicals (18%)
- Forest products (12%)
- Energy (9%)
- Equipment & machinery (7%)
- Other (8%)
