Canada’s trade surplus with the world fell sharply in January as exports pulled back from record high values in December, Statistics Canada said today. As a result, the nation’s merchandise trade surplus narrowed from $7.7 billion in December to $6.3 billion in January.

The decline was largely due to falling exports of energy products, which were mostly the result of lower prices. Imports remained stable at December’s record high level

Exports fell 3.3% to $40 billion in the wake of falling exports of energy products, although they were still 11.8% higher than in January 2005. If energy exports were excluded, the total value of exports would have been virtually unchanged from December.

Imports, meanwhile, were steady at $33.6 billion, which was a 6.1% increase over January last year.

Imports from the European Union advanced in January. Imports from “all other countries”, which includes China, rose 2.4% in January to a record high $5.2 billion. Declining imports from the United States as well as from “other OECD countries,” offset these gains.

Exports to the United States fell 3.6% in January to $32.7 billion, while imports from south of the border declined 1.3% to $22 billion. That put Canada’s trade surplus with the United States at $10.7 billion, down from December’s record-high $11.6 billion.

Canada’s trade deficit with countries other than the United States grew to a record high $4.4 billion in January. Despite an 8.7% gain in exports to the European Union, exports to non-US destinations slipped 1.9% to $7.3 billion. In contrast, imports jumped over a quarter billion dollars to $11.6 billion.