Canadian trade ended 2017 with surging imports after an 8% rise in December to reach a new one month record. With exports barely changed that resulted in a trade deficit that was 25% larger than economists expected. Despite that the trade surplus with the U.S. climbed to 24.7% for the year as a whole to C$40 billion ($32.2 billion), likely due to a 34% rise in total energy exports for the year. The increase in the surplus will likely cast a cloud over the next round of NAFTA negotiations just as it did in the previous set of talks. Energy accounted for 94% of the rise in Canadian exports...