2007 Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Rose 4.9 Percent from 2006

(State Rankings in Tables 5 and 7)

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Contact BTS 11-08 Dave Smallen 202-366-5568

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 4.9 percent higher in 2007 than in 2006, reaching an annual record of $797 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1).  The 4.9 percent rate of growth from 2006 to 2007 is lower than the 8.9 percent growth from 2005 to 2006 (Table 2). 

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), reported that freight valued at $137.0 billion entered the U.S. from Mexico by truck in 2007 while $93.0 billion of freight was exported to Mexico by truck (Table 6). 

Freight valued at $150.4 billion entered the U.S. from Canada by truck in 2007 while $174.3 billion of freight was exported to Canada by truck (Table 4).

Total North American surface transportation imports rose 4.2 percent in 2007 from 2006, and exports rose 5.8 percent during the same time period (Table 2). 

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

Total North American surface transportation trade value in 2007 was up 47.4 percent compared to 2002, and up 87.2 percent compared to 1997, a period of 10 years (Table 3). 

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $511 billion in 2007, up 4.6 percent compared to 2006 (Table 4).  The value of imports carried by truck was 0.4 percent higher in 2007 than 2006 while the value of exports carried by truck was 6.1 percent higher.

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in 2007 with $77 billion (Table 5).  

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S. – Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $286 billion in 2007, up 5.3 percent compared to 2006 (Table 6).  The value of imports carried by truck was 8.4 percent higher in 2007 than 2006 while the value of exports carried by truck was 0.1 percent higher.   

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in 2007 with $87.8 billion (Table 7).  

The TransBorder Freight Dataset is a special extract of the official U.S. foreign trade statistics.  The data are tabulated for BTS by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division.  TransBorder numbers include data received by BTS as of Feb. 14. 

The news 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/. 

Table 1. Value of Annual U.S. Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Compared to 2007

(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; Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

Table 3: 2007 Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Compared with 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; Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

Table 5. Top 10 States Trading with Canada by Surface Modes of Transportation, in 2007 Ranked by 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; Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.NA – not applicable

Table 7. Top 10 States Trading with Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation in 2007, Ranked by Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

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