The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that U.S. trade with its North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico increased 1.2 percent from April 2013 to April 2014 at $100.1 billion.
BTS said U.S.-NAFTA trade has seen annual gains in 9 of the last ten months, with January’s 0.2 percent decline the lone exception and due largely in part to severe
winter weather in the northern states and Canadian border.
Trucks and pipeline combined to move more than two-thirds of total NAFTA trade in May, with trucks at 60.3 percent and pipeline at 8.6 percent, according to BTS. Trucks represented $30.6 billion in exports and $29.8 billion in imports in April.
BTS said for individual modal growth, truck freight was up 0.7 percent, rail dropped 1.8 percent, and air and vessel were down 3.1 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively. Even with its decline, rail is still the second largest mode behind trucking, with 14.7 percent of U.S.-NAFTA trade, followed by pipeline at 8.6 percent, vessel at 7.9 percent, and air at 3.7 percent.