Monthly Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Up Again

(World Trade Interactive)

The Department of Transportation reports that U.S. surface transportation trade in goods with NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico rose 4.6% from May to June. The $69.9 billion total for June represented a 37.6% jump from a year earlier. Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline and in June accounted for about 87% of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico.

Surface trade between the U.S. and Canada totaled $42.0 billion in June, up $1.8 billion from May and 35.5% higher than a year earlier. Exports by truck increased 34.2% by value from the previous year while imports by truck rose 35.8%. U.S.-Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $27.8 billion, up $1.2 billion from the previous month and 41.0% from June 2009. Exports by truck rose 34.5% by value from a year before while imports by truck increased 37.9%.

According to the DOT, the value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in June was up 17.5% compared to June 2005 and 38.0% from June 2000, including a 43.4% jump for exports and a 33.7% gain for imports.

BTS Releases Freight Transportation Services Index for May

(CIFFA eBulletin)

The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) fell 0.4% in May from its April level, declining after two consecutive monthly increases, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week. BTS reported that the Freight TSI has risen 4.4% over the last 12 months, starting in June 2009, after declining 15.3% in the previous 10 months beginning in August 2008.

The index has increased in nine of the last 12 months. Through the first five months of 2010, the index declined 1.9% with small increases in January, March and April combined with a 3.5% decrease in February and the 0.4% decrease in May.

Mexico Looks for Proposal to End Trucking Dispute

(Journal of Commerce Online – William B. Cassidy)

Without progress on cross-border trucking, punitive tariffs could be expanded

Mexico may expand the list of U.S. products facing billions of dollars in punitive tariffs unless the Obama administration proposes a cross-border trucking program. A Mexican government official told The Wall Street Journal Thursday that Mexico wants more than the revival of the pilot project killed by Congress last year. “If we don’t see a concrete proposal from the U.S. in the next few weeks, Mexico will exercise its legal rights,” the unnamed official told the financial newspaper.

Those rights, the official said, include expanding the retaliatory tariffs. Mexico imposed punitive tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. goods when Congress and the White House shut down a Bush-era test of cross-border trucking. The tariffs ranged from 10% to 45% and affected 90 products. Mexico is the second-largest export market for the U.S., receiving 12% of U.S. exports in 2009. Almost half of Mexico’s imports are sourced from the U.S. An expansion of the retaliatory tariffs could hit agricultural exports such as corn, rice and beans, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs said in a recent report. Read more here.

CBP Northern Border Highway Carrier Conference – Aug.31-Sept.1

(CBP)

The second annual Northern Border Highway Carrier Conference (NBHCC) will be held in Niagara Falls, NY on Tuesday August 31 and Wednesday September 1, 2010.

Registration is set to open on June 16, 2010 at 12:00 eastern time, with spots being filled on a first come, first serve basis (seating is limited to 500 participants). The registration link will be posted at the stated time for your use. Your Supply Chain Security Specialist may be contacted for more information. Please mark your calendars for this important event!

Businesses Push for U.S.-Canadian Procurement Pact

(Journal of Commerce Online – William B. Cassidy)

Executives from both sides of border visit Capitol Hill to promote agreement

Cross-border trade with Canada isn’t just about sales and profit, it’s about millions of jobs, U.S. and Canadian business executives told members of Congress this week. U.S. trade with Canada supports 8 million jobs in the United States alone, the executives said, a number that resonates on Capitol Hill when U.S. unemployment is stuck near 10%. […]

“We need to increase awareness of how matters now before Congress can affect jobs in the U.S.,” Canadian Ambassador to the United States Gary Doer said May 12. “We are the most reliable supplier of energy to the U.S., the biggest supplier of oil to the U.S., and we’re the biggest customer you’ve got,” Doer said.

A study released by the Canadian government found that the number of U.S. jobs supported by trade with Canada increased from 5.2 million in 2001 to 8 million. Total cross-border trade has been increasing at an annual rate of 7.8%, the study said. Read more here.

Freight Index Gains Third Consecutive Month

(Journal of Commerce Online – Joseph Bonney)

First year-to-year increase since July 2008 marks recovery

The Transportation Department’s Freight Transportation Index, which measures month-to-month changes in ton-miles shipped, rose 0.9% in March from February for the third consecutive monthly gain.

The March Freight TSI rose 2.6% from March 2009, the first year-to-year increase in the freight index since July 2008.

The freight index rose 1.6% in the first quarter, marking only the sixth quarterly increase in the past 20 quarters but the second in the last three quarters. Read more here.

Rep. DeFazio Urges Repeal of Mexican Trucks Program

(Transport Topics)

Letter co-signed by 78 members of Congress cites safety issues, addresses retaliatory tariffs

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) sent a bipartisan letter signed by 78 Members of Congress Wednesday to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, asking that they consider repealing the program that opens U.S. roadways to Mexican trucks. The program, suspended since early last year under the Obama administration, was begun under the Bush administration under the provisions of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.

But Mexico “has no meaningful system for commercial driver’s licenses, drug testing or hours of service. . . . [NAFTA] is a trade agreement that threatens the safety of the American public,” DeFazio wrote.

DeFazio chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s highways and transit subcommittee. The letter was also signed by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who chairs the full committee. Read more here.

BTS Releases North American Surface Trade Numbers for 2009

(CIFFA eBulletin)

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico decreased by 23.3% in 2009 compared to 2008, dropping to $637 billion. The 23.3% decline in trade was the largest year-to-year decline for the 15 years covered by these data. NAFTA went into effect in 1994.

BTS reported that the value of trade by surface transportation with Canada and Mexico decreased by 31.1% during the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. It decreased by 14.9% in the final six months of the year but increased by 10.5% in December compared to December 2008. U.S.-Canada surface transportation trade totalled $386 billion in 2009, a decrease of 28.1% compared to 2008. In 2009, 86.6% of U.S. merchandise trade by value with Canada and Mexico moved on land.

Surface Transportation Trade with U.S. Fell 19% in October to US$36.3B

(The Canadian Press)

Cross-border trade continued to improve last October even though goods carried mostly by trucks, rail and pipelines was down 19% to US$36.3 billion from the same month in 2008, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday. Surface transportation trade with the United States was 4.3% higher than in September 2009. Monthly changes can be affected by seasonal variations, the agency said in its report.

More than US$19 billion of goods were exported from Canada in October, compared to US$18.1 billion in September and US$25 billion in October 2008. Imports from the United States totalled US$17.2 billion, up from US$16.6 billion in September but down from US$19.7 billion in October 2008.

Trucks accounted for about 65% of all cross-border trade. Railways carried 16% and pipelines 12%. The remaining shipments were made by mail and other transportation. Railway exports from Canada enjoyed the largest monthly increase, growing by 9.7%, while imports fell 5.4%. Read more here.

NAFTA Partners Break Seven-Month Surface Trade Decline

(Canadian Transportation & Logistics via Truck News)

Trade using surface transportation between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was 24.9% lower in August 2009 than in August 2008, coming in at $54.3 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. But that figure was still good enough to break a seven-month skid in surface trade numbers.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the value of US surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico rose 5.3% in August 2009 from July 2009.

The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in August was up 1.3% compared to August 2004, and up 26.0% compared to August 1999. Imports in August were up 18.8% compared to August 1999, while exports were up 35.5%. Read more here.

Trucking Rates Down Across the Board

(Purchasing B2B – Scott Irvine)

Price index lets purchasers benchmark their contracts

The Canadian transportation industry is currently experiencing a “perfect storm” of economic factors. Lower fuel prices, slow economic growth and an improving Canada-U.S. exchange rate have all put significant pressure on carriers to lower rates, while buyers of over-the-road freight services are clearly benefiting.

According to the monthly Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI), prices paid by Canadian shippers in July 2009 for over-the-road truck transportation have declined 15.6% year-over-year, and a full 9.7% since December alone. A significant factor driving this decline has been lower fuel prices and the resulting reduction in fuel surcharges assessed by carriers (from 16.3% at the end of last year to 12.3% in July).

However, the base rates paid by Canadian shippers has clocked a decline of 5.7% since the beginning of the year, even when the impact of fuel surcharges is removed. This is a significant decrease in light of the usual trend of price increases levied by carriers. Read more here.

Time to End the U.S. Dispute with Mexico Over Trucks and Tariffs on U.S. Products

(Seattle Times – Kate Riley)

Mexico's tariffs on more than 90 U.S. products are taking their toll on affected manufacturers and producers. Meanwhile, Mexico says if the U.S. doesn't comply with the North American Free Trade Agreement and permit U.S. trucks in the U.S., a second round of sanctions could be imposed.

Nothing good comes from neighbors feuding. Bound by proximity, they must find ways to work things out.Nevertheless, Congress and President Obama did the rough equivalent of blocking the neighbor's driveway by ending a pilot project permitting Mexican trucks to bring cargo into the United States – a practice authorized in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Congress enacted and Obama signed in March a spending bill that stopped funding the experiment that, by many accounts, including a federal report, was successful.

Mexico retaliated with steep tariffs on more than 90 U.S. products, which is squeezing Washington potato and pear, apricot and cherry producers, among others. Read the complete editorial here.

CTA Voices Border Concerns at Economic Summit

(Canadian Trucking Alliance)

The Canadian Trucking Alliance is concerned that border problems are being masked by the economic downturn and congestion of the past will return unless changes are made. David Bradley, CEO of the CTA, took that message with him when he traveled to the Annual Summit of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) in Boise, Idaho.

PNWER is a public-private organization comprising five U.S. states (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington), three provinces (Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan) as well as the Yukon. Together the regions represent the 11th largest economy in the world. This year’s PNWER summit was held in Boise, ID.

Bradley told the gathering of legislators and business people from the northwest region of the continent that problems at the border are currently being masked by lower volumes of trade reflecting the ongoing recession and therefore fewer cross-border truck trips.

He warned that a return to more normal traffic levels could mean a return to longer delays and less predictability at the busiest border crossings and that “anything that impairs the efficiency, productivity and reliability of the North American supply chain impacts negatively on the region’s ability to compete, to attract direct investment and to take full advantage of economic recovery when it comes.” Read more here.

Canada-U.S. Trucking Sees Bad First-Half

(Journal of Commerce Online – Courtney Tower)

Cross-border trucking over the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, the busiest commercial connection between the United States and Canada, fell by nearly a third in the first half of this year. At other key crossings, traffic was little better.

There were 173,202 truck crossings either way between Detroit and Windsor, in June, a 32.7% decline from the 257,276 in June of last year, according to the Public Border Operators Association (PBOA). For the first half of this year, to June 30, there were 1.1 million truck crossings, a 31.1% drop from the 1.6 million in the 2008 period.

At the second busiest U.S.-Canada crossing, the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Mich., and Point Edwards, Ontario, the half-year truck crossings were down 24.4 percent, to 621,624 from 822,050. They were down 24% on the month, as well. Read more here.

Related: The Department of Transportation said its freight transportation services index fell 14.8% in May from a year earlier to its lowest level in 12 years. The drop to 94 was the largest May-to-May drop in the 20-year history of TSI calculations, DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said in its monthly report.