NAFTA, North American Economies Trucking Along

New information released by the US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) revealed 60.8 percent of the nearly $100 billion in freight moved between the US and its NAFTA partners in Maydid so by truck.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, was signed into agreement in 1994 between the US, Mexican, and Canadian presidents, and was ratified by each nation's legislative or parliamentary branch. Designed to dissolve barriers preventing free trade, NAFTA has removed tariffs on goods passing between the three nations, and is the largest trade bloc in the world.

Of the planes, trains, and automobiles which carried NAFTA goods across the North American continent, trucks by far and large transported the bulk of the goods, and were followed by rail (15.1 percent), vessels (8.6 percent), pipelines (6.8 percent), and air (3.9 percent). Between trucks, rail, and pipelines-- the surface modes of transportation-- 82.7 percent of the total NAFTA freight was transported.

For freight flows within Canada, trucks still carried the bulk of transportation at 55.2 percent of the $54.8 billion in freight. Rail followed at 16.5 percent, followed by pipelines (11.4 percent), vessels (6.4 percent), and air (4.6 percent). Meanwhile, for Mexico, trucks hauled a staggering 67.8 percent of freight, whereas rail carried 13.4 percent, vessels ranked at 11.4, air at 3 percent, and pipelines at less than one percent.

In additional good news all around, the value of goods transported through the NAFTA agreement increased nearly 2 percent from May of 2012, and was ups 77.5 percent from May 2009. The North American economies are clearly recovering slowly and steadily, which is great news for anyone interested in expanding internationally. To learn more about shipping from the US to Canada, we welcome the opportunity to assist!