BTS Releases North American Surface Trade Numbers for December 2007:
Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Rose 3.1 Percent from
December 2006
(State Rankings in Tables 5 and 7) 

            Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 3.1 percent higher in December 2007 than in December 2006, reaching $60.9 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1).  

The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico fell 13.4 percent in December from November (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. 

            The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in December was up 49.3 percent compared to December 2002, and up 73.5 percent compared to December 1997, a period of 10 years (Table 3).  Imports in December were up 82.0 percent compared to December 1997, while exports were up 63.6 percent.   

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada 

 U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $39.6 billion in December, up 3.7 percent compared to December 2006 (Table 4).  The value of imports carried by truck was 6.7 percent lower in December 2007 than December 2006, while the value of exports carried by truck was 5.0 percent higher. 

            Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in December with $5.7 billion (Table 5).    

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico 

U.S.–Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $21.3 billion in December, up 2.1 percent compared to December 2006 (Table 6).  The value of imports carried by truck was 6.9 percent higher in December 2007 than December 2006 while the value of exports carried by truck was 3.3 percent lower.          

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in December with $6.5 billion (Table 7).    

The TransBorder Freight Data are a unique subset of official U.S. foreign trade statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau.  New data are tabulated monthly and historical data are not adjusted for inflation.  December 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/.  BTS will release annual TransBorder numbers on March 11 and January TransBorder numbers on March 31. 

 

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

                     Note: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

Table 2. U.S. Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico by Mode of Transportation
(millions of dollars)
Mode		December 2006		November 2007		December 2007		Percent Change     Nov. 2007 – Dec. 2007		Percent Change December 2006-2007
All Surface Modes	Imports	33,910		39,660		34,497		-13.0		1.7
	Exports	25,139		30,693		26,405		-14.0		5.0
	Total	59,049		70,352		60,902		-13.4		3.1
Truck	Imports	21,009		25,293		20,892		-17.4		-0.6
	Exports	19,360		23,734		19,775		-16.7		2.1
Rail	Imports	7,680		8,210		7,137		-13.1		-7.1
	Exports	3,385		4,278		3,836		-10.3		13.3
Pipeline	Imports	3,988		4,684		5,116		9.2		28.3
	Exports	327		259		466		80.1		42.6
Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/
Note: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.  The value of trade for all surface modes is not equal to the sum of truck, rail and pipeline modes, it also includes shipments made by mail, foreign trade zones, other and unknown modes of transportation.  For additional detail refer to the “Data Fields” Section of the TransBorder web page: http://www.bts.gov/transborder/TBDR_DataFields.html.