April Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Rose 9.6 Percent from April 2004

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Contact BTS 29-05 Dave Smallen 202-366-5568

Thursday, June 30, 2005 - The United States traded $58.3 billion in goods using surface transportation in April 2005 with its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico. This represents an increase of 9.6 percent from April 2004, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1).

The report issued by BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), shows that total surface transportation trade fell 1.9 percent in April from March (Table 2). Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.

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.

Total surface transportation trade value in April was up 24.6 percent compared to April 2002 and 91.3 percent compared to April 1995, a period of ten years (Table 3). Exports in April were up 75.7 percent compared to April 1995, while imports were up 105.0 percent (Table 3).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S.-Canada surface transportation trade totaled $38.1 billion in April, up 10.5 percent compared to April 2004. Exports by truck, the mode carrying the largest amount by value, increased 11.9 percent from April 2004 while imports by truck rose 5.4 percent (Table 4).

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in April with $5.8 billion (Table 5).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S.-Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $20.2 billion in April, up 7.8 percent compared to April 2004.  Imports by truck, the mode carrying the largest amount by value, increased 10.0 percent compared to April 2004, while exports by truck rose 1.6 percent (Table 6).

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in April with $6.5 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.  April transborder numbers include data received by BTS as of June 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 May transborder numbers on July 28.

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: April 2005 Surface Trade Compared with April 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 April 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 April 2005  Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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