November 2012 U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada and Mexico Totaled $81.5 Billion

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Figure 1: North American Surface Transportation Trade: January 2004 - November 2012

Unadjusted and Adjusted for Inflation and Exchange Rate Flucations

North American Surface Transportation Trade: January 2004 - November 2012

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/TransBorder-Freight-Data/myhq-rm6q/

Note: U.S. export data adjusted based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Exports by End Use Category for All Commodities. U.S. imports adjusted based on BLS U.S. Import Price Indexes for Canada and Mexico (January 2004 = 100). The BLS indexes may be revised in each of the three months after original publication. For example, index values released in January 2012 will be subject to revision in February, March and April of that year.

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, Canada and Mexico, rose 6.2 percent in November 2012 compared to November 2011, totaling $81.5 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Figure 1 and Table 1a). Adjusted for inflation and exchange rates and presented in January 2004 dollars, the November 2012 total was $59.5 billion, up 7.6 percent from November 2011 (Figure 1 and Table 1b).

BTS, a part of the Department's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that in November 2012, $56.2 billion of U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico moved by truck, $14.9 billion moved by rail, and $5.9 billion moved by pipeline (Figure 2). Surface transportation includes freight movements by truck, rail, pipeline, mail, other modes of transport, and goods moving into Foreign Trade Zones. Surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico accounted for 21 percent of total U.S. foreign trade in November 2012.

Figure 2: North American Freight by Mode, November 2012 (current dollars)

North American Freight by Mode, November 2012 (current dollars)

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data. https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/TransBorder-Freight-Data/myhq-rm6q/

Note: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding. Percent changes are based on actual numbers prior to rounding (if applicable).

U.S.-Canada surface trade was $46.7 billion in current dollars in November 2012, while U.S.-Mexico surface trade was $34.8 billion. For trade statistics by mode, see Table 3 for Canada and Table 5 for Mexico.

In November, Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada, at $6.6 billion in current dollars (Table 4). The top commodity category transported between the U.S. and Canada by surface modes of transportation in November was vehicles and parts, valued at $9.6 billion in current dollars (Table 7).

Texas continued to lead all states in surface trade with Mexico at $12.4 billion in current dollars (Table 6). The top commodity category transported between the U.S. and Mexico by surface modes of transportation in November was electrical machinery with $7.9 billion in trade in current dollars (Table 8).

For more information, see Transborder Press Releases for previous press releases and summary tables. See TransBorder Freight Data for data from previous months, and individual state data. BTS has scheduled the release of December 2012 TransBorder numbers for Feb 28.

Technical Note: The BLS indexes used in the adjustments for inflation and exchange rates may be revised in each of the three months after original publication. For example, index values released in January 2012 were subject to revision in February, March and April of that year.