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Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Rose 80.9 Percent since Start of NAFTA

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Contact BTS 33-04 Dave Smallen 202-366-5568

Tuesday, December 7 - In the ten years since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, trade using surface transportation between the United States and its partners, Canada and Mexico, has grown more than 80 percent and as of September is valued at $54.9 billion, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation reported today (Table 1).

Surface transportation consists of freight movements by truck, rail, pipeline and other modes of surface transportation. About 90 percent of U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico moves by surface transportation.

Total surface transportation trade value was up 80.9 percent from September 1994 and 29.3 percent from September 2001 (Table 1). Exports increased 57.3 percent compared to September 1994 while imports over that same time rose 103.7 percent (Table 1).

The $54.9 billion in surface transportation trade in September was 12.4 percent more than in September 2003 (Table 2). Total surface transportation trade rose 2.5 percent in September 2004 from August 2004 (Table 3). Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S.-Canada surface transportation trade rose 12.5 percent in September from September 2003 to $35.4 billion. Exports by truck, the largest amount by value, increased 11.8 percent from September 2003, while imports by truck rose 8.2 percent (Table 4).

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in September with $6.0 billion (Table 5).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S.-Mexico surface transportation trade rose 12.1 percent in September from September 2003 to $19.5 billion. Imports by truck, the largest amount by value, increased 12.8 percent from September 2003 while exports by truck rose 10.0 percent (Table 6).

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in September with $6.4 billion (Table 7).

The Transborder Surface Freight Dataset is a special extract of the official U.S. foreign trade statistics. The data are tabulated for BTS monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division. September transborder numbers include data received by BTS as of Nov. 15.

The press release and summary tables can be found at www.bts.gov. More information on transborder freight data and data from previous months are posted on the BTS website at http://www.bts.gov/transborder/. BTS will release October transborder numbers on January 4th.

Table 1: Percent Changes of North American Surface Transportation Trade, Imports and Exports by Value from Previous Years to 2004

(September and September)

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Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Table 2: North American Surface Transportation Trade by Value

(millions of dollars)

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Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Table 3: U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada and Mexico by Mode

(millions of dollars)

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Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Note: The value of all surface modes is not equal to the sum of truck, rail and pipeline modes. The value of trade for all surface modes includes shipments made by truck, rail, pipeline, mail, foreign trade zones, other and unknown modes of transportation.  For additional detail refer to the Transborder Surface Freight data "Sources and Reliability" statement:http://www.bts.gov/ntda/tbscd/srfin.html

Table 4: U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada by Mode

(millions of dollars)

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Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Table 5: Top 10 States Trading with Canada by Surface Transportation, ranked by September 2004 Surface Transportation Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

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Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Table 6: U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico By Mode

(millions of dollars)

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Key: NA = not applicable

Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Table 7: Top 10 States Trading with Mexico by Surface Transportation, ranked by September 2004 Surface Transportation Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

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Source: BTS Transborder Surface Freight Dataset, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/