NAFTA Surface Trade Still Declining
Friday May 29, 2009
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation has just published their figures for March. The BTS reported that trade, using surface transportation, between the US and its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico, was 27.9% lower in March 2009 than in March 2008. This large percentage drop translates to $51.1 billion. Currently 88% of trade between the NAFTA partners is surface freight carried on truck, rail and pipeline. On a country-by-country basis, surface transportation trade between the US and Canada was down 34.2 percent compared to March 2008. Surface trade between the US and Mexico in March totaled $20.0 billion, but this was a 15.1% decline compared to March 2008.
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So trade with Mexico has held up much better than trade with Canada. Is that because trade with Canada is dominated by oil imports and auto parts imports? How do these trade figures compare to other trade partners?