March Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Rose 5.6 Percent from March 2004

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Friday, May 27, 2005 - The United States traded $59.4 billion in goods in March 2005 with its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico using surface transportation.  This amount was 5.6 percent more than March 2004, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation reported today (Table 1).

Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline.  About 90 percent of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico moves on land.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), reported that total surface transportation trade rose 10.9 percent in March from February (Table 2).  Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors. 

Total surface transportation trade value in March was up 30.3 percent compared to March 2002, and 80.5 percent compared to March 1995, a period of ten years (Table 3).  Exports in March were up 64.6 percent compared to March 1995, while imports were up 94.8 percent (Table 3).   

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S. - Canada surface transportation trade totaled $39.5 billion in March, up 8.4 percent compared to March 2004.  Exports by truck increased 7.9 percent from March 2004, the largest amount by value, while imports by truck rose 3.8 percent (Table 4).

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in March, with $6.3 billion (Table 5).  

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S. - Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $19.9 billion in March, up 0.5 percent compared to March 2004, imports by truck increased 0.7 percent compared to March 2004, the largest amount by value, while exports by truck fell 1.5 percent (Table 6).

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in March, 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.  March transborder numbers include data received by BTS as of May 13, 2005. 

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 April Transborder numbers on June 30.

Table 1: Value of Monthly U.S. Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico

(millions of dollars)

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

Table 2: U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada and Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation

(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 3: March 2005 Surface Trade Compared with March of Prior Years

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

Table 4: U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada by Surface Modes of Transportation

(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 5: Top 10 States Trading with Canada by Surface Modes of Transportation, Ranked by March 2005 Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

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

Table 6: U.S. Merchandise Trade with Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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 7: Top 10 States Trading with Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation, Ranked by March 2005  Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

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