The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that Canada's trade deficit last year widened to $31.3-billion, marking the largest annual shortfall on record outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, as U.S. tariffs hammered key export sectors. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that annual exports last year decreased by 0.2 per cent, driven by declines across most product groups, Statistics Canada reported on Thursday. Exports to the U.S. tumbled 5.8 per cent. A strong run-up in gold prices mitigated trad-war damage. Canadian exports of unwrought gold, silver and platinum group metals and their alloys increased by a whopping 41.7 per cent last year. Excluding this category, exports fell 3 per cent. The annual international merchandise data illustrates how U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs have upended Canada's most important trading relationship. Still, "At around one per cent of GDP for both the merchandise trade deficit and the current account gap overall, the imbalances aren't overly concerning," BMO chief economist Doug Porter told investors. "The volume of trade stabilized through the second half of last year after a heavy blow in the spring, with net exports on track to support GDP moderately again in Q4."