North American Surface Trade Numbers for 2004; Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Rose 12.6 Percent From 2003

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Contact BTS 09-05 Roger Lotz 202-366-2246

Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - More than $633 billion worth of goods crossed the border by surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico in 2004, 12.6 percent more than 2003, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today (Table 1).

Exports with NAFTA partners increased 11.9 percent from 2003 to 2004 while imports over that same time rose 13.1 percent.  The greatest percentage increase was in pipeline exports which increased 82.7 percent, while rail exports grew 16.1 percent and truck exports grew 10.5 percent. Measured in changes in the value of trade between 2003 and 2004, increases in imports were larger than increases in exports for each surface mode (Table 2).   

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. 

December North American Trade

More than $52.0 billion worth of goods crossed the border by surface transportation between the United States and its NAFTA partners in December 2004, 14.6 percent more than in December 2003 (Table 1).

Total surface transportation trade fell 7.3 percent in December 2004 from November 2004 (Table 3).  Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors. 

Total surface transportation trade value in December 2004 was up 36.1 percent compared to December 2001 and 80.5 percent compared to December 1994, the year NAFTA took effect (Table 4).  Exports increased 60.2 percent compared to December 1994 while imports over that same time rose 99.7 percent (Table 4).   

December U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S. - Canada surface transportation trade rose 15.7 percent to $33.8 billion in December 2004 compared to December 2003.  Carrying the largest amount by value, exports by truck increased 17.5 percent compared to December 2003 while imports by truck rose 15.4 percent (Table 5). Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in December 2004 with $5.5 billion (Table 6).  

December U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S. - Mexico surface transportation trade rose 12.7 percent to $18.3 billion in December 2004 compared to December 2003.  Carrying the largest amount by value, imports by truck increased 12.1 percent while exports by truck rose 12.0 percent over the same period (Table 7).

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in December 2004 with $5.7 billion (Table 8).

November 2004 - Revisions

On Jan. 31, 2005, Statistics Canada announced that Canadian imports from the United States in November 2004 were understated in its Jan. 12, 2005 release.  The U.S. Census Bureau and Statistics Canada cooperate in a data exchange program where Canadian import transactions, collected by the Canada Border Services Agency are provided, through Statistics Canada, to the Census Bureau to derive U.S. exports to Canada.  Statistics Canada notified the U.S. Census Bureau that some Canadian import transactions for November 2004 were omitted in the data exchange, resulting in an understatement of U.S. exports to Canada of approximately $1.4 billion. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics' November 2004 export numbers have been revised to include the omitted transactions and are being made available with the release of the December 2004 statistics in this release. 

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics Transborder 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.  The Bureau of Transportation Statistics uses this data to develop the monthly North American Surface Trade data.   

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 January 2005 Transborder Freight Data numbers on March 29. 

Table 1. Monthly Value of U.S. Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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

R: Data have been revised since last monthly release

Table 2. Annual U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada and Mexico using Surface 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 3. Monthly U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada and Mexico using Surface Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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

R: Data have been revised since last monthly release

Table 4. December 2004 Surface Trade Compared with December of Prior Years: Percent Change

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

Table 5. U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada using Surface Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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

For Note: See Table 2

R: Data have been revised since last monthly release

Table 6. Top 10 States Trading with Canada using Surface Transportation, ranked by December 2004 Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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

Table 7. U.S. Merchandise Trade with Mexico using Surface Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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

For Note: See Table 2

R: Data have been revised since last monthly release

Table 8. Top 10 States Trading with Mexico using Surface Transportation, ranked by December 2004 Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

Excel | CSV

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