An all-time high trade deficit for Canada in September is being blamed on the import of a single C$4 billion piece of oil equipment. The underlying export picture did not help though, with a 1% drop on a year earlier being the seventh straight fall. The decline was broad based, with energy and metals the main drivers. While the CETA trade deal with the EU will help in the longer term, in the short term autos are the only major growth area, with exports increasing 6% and rising for 22 of the past 24 months.