Relative Prices for Transportation Goods and Services
The
United States
had relatively lower
prices for transportation goods and services in 20011 than did 9 out of 24 Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (figure 11-1). However, the
nation's top two overall merchandise trade partners,
Canada
and
Mexico, had lower relative
prices in 2001 than did the
United States. Many of the OECD
countries that had less expensive transportation goods and services than the
United States
have developing and
transitional economies.
Prices
in 2001 for transportation goods and services in
Japan
and the
United Kingdom—both major
U.S.
trade partners—were much
higher than in the
United States. However, between 1999
and 2001, these prices in some countries, such as
Germany, France, and
Belgium, decreased leading to
lower relative prices than in the
United States
[1, 2].
Relative
price comparisons may indicate how domestic
U.S.
transportation
industries, goods, and services stack up against their foreign counterparts.
The relative price for a good or service traded between two countries is the
price for that commodity in one country divided by the price for the same
commodity in another country, with the prices for the goods and services in
both countries expressed in a common currency. However, relative prices for
goods and services alone do not reveal why transportation is more expensive in
one country than another. They also do not reveal the quality or reliability of
the transportation or fully take into account differences in geospatial factors
between countries.
Sources
1.
U.S.
Department of
Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of
Transportation Statistics, Transportation Statistics Annual Report, October 2003 (Washington DC: 2003), p. 120.
2. ______. Transportation Statistics Annual Report, September 2004 (Washington DC:
2004), p. 138.
1 The most recent year for which comparable
international data were available at the time this report was prepared.
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