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RESEARCH AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION
BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 15.6 percent higher in March 2011 than in March 2010, reaching $80.8 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1). March 2011 was the highest month since collection of data began in 1994, beating the previous record set in April 2008 by 8.8 percent, not adjusted for inflation.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in March 2011 rose 58.3 percent in two years from March 2009. Trade value in March 2011 was up 14.2 percent from the early recession level of March 2008 (Table 3). See Transborder Press Releases for historic data. Values in this press release are not adjusted for inflation.

Freight value in March rose 21.5 percent from February 2011 (Table 2). Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.

Surface transportation includes freight movements by truck, rail, pipeline, mail, Foreign Trade Zones and other. In March, 85.8 percent of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico moved on land, 9.8 percent moved by vessel, and 4.4 percent moved by air.

The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in March was up 18.5 percent compared to March 2006, and up 60.9 percent compared to March 2001, a period of 10 years. Imports in March were up 52.2 percent compared to March 2001, while exports were up 72.3 percent (Table 3).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $48.7 billion in March, up 15.7 percent compared to March 2010. For trade numbers by mode, see Table 4.

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in March with $6.1 billion (Table 5).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S.–Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $32.1 billion in March, up 15.3 percent compared to March 2010. March was the first month on record that U.S.–Mexico trade has exceeded $30 billion. For trade numbers by mode, see Table 6.

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in March with $11.3 billion, the highest amount of trade on record between a U.S. state and Mexico (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.  March TransBorder numbers include data received by BTS as of May 20.

Download full version (PDF): March 2011 Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Topped $80 Billion for
First Time on Record

About the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
www.bts.gov
“The BTS mission is to create, manage, and share transportation statistical knowledge with public and private transportation communities and the Nation.  The main purpose of BTS’ work is to help advance the DOT Strategic Plan (2006-2011). But we also aim to anticipate future needs and policy issues. Our challenge is to develop data and analyses that are relevant, high quality, timely, comparable, complete, and accessible-our strategic goals for transportation statistics.”

Tags: BTS, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Canada, Mexico, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, RITA, Trade

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Global, Infra Views, National, Rail, Roads . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.