OTTAWA - Canada's international merchandise trade with China has more than tripled in the past decade, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.

Canada's imports from China amounted to C$48.2 billion ($48.4 billion) in 2011, compared with C$16.0 billion in 2002, while exports to China reached C$16.8 billion, a four-fold increase over C$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 United States declined further from 74.9 percent in 2010 to 73.7 percent last year, although the total amount rose by 10.4 percent to C$330.1 billion. In 2002, the figure stood high at 87.1 percent.

The share of goods imported from the United States 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.

In 2011, the total import from the United States increased 8.6 percent from 2010 to 220.8 billion.

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