Ottawa, Apr 5 (IANS): Canada's international merchandise trade with China has more than tripled in the past decade, according to data released by Statistics Canada.

Canada's imports from China amounted to 48.2 billion Canadian dollars (about $48.4 billion) in 2011, compared with 16 billion Canadian dollars in 2002, while exports to China reached 16.8 billion Canadian dollars, a four-fold increase over 4.1 billion in 2002.

China remained Canada's second-largest source of imports for the 10th consecutive year, Statistics Canada said.

Meanwhile, Canada's share of exports to the US declined further from 74.9 percent in 2010 to 73.7 percent last year, although the total amount rose by 10.4 percent to 330.1 billion Canadian dollars. In 2002, the figure stood high at 87.1 percent, reported Xinhua.

The share of goods imported from the US now accounts for less than half of total imports, declining from 62.6 percent in 2002, and 50.4 percent in 2010 to 49.5 percent in 2011.

With exports of 457.6 billion Canadian dollars and imports of 456.4 billion, Canada's trade balance of the year went from a deficit of 9.0 billion in 2010 to a surplus of 1.2 billion, marking Canada's first annual trade surplus since 2008.