Inbound Logistics | July 2022

With a vital trade relationship aloft, moving shipments between Canada and the United States remains smooth and collaborative— thanks to reliable and experienced providers. CANADA-U.S. TRADE: SEAMLESS & STREAMLINED

I n the view of Kirsten Hillman, Canadian ambassador to the United States, the longstanding spirit of friendship and good will that exists between Canada and the United States goes well beyond the relative ease with which cargo moves back and forth between the two borders. “It’s more than just trade,” she says. “We don’t just sell products to each other, we make things together. “An automobile that is made between Detroit and Windsor will have crossed the border six to seven times before it rolls off the assembly line,” she says. “It’s the same for our agricultural sector and manufacturing sector outside of autos.

particularly signicant example of the comity between the two nations. A concrete manifestation of that relationship is the creation of the U.S.- Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on July 1, 2020. “This agreement is the cornerstone of our trade relationship in North America, and it is the cornerstone of the Canada- U.S. trading relationship,” Hillman says. The creation of the “new NAFTA,” as Hillman calls it, underlines a shared commitment to maintaining a robust relationship long into the future by updating an agreement that had become dated. “When NAFTA was rst entered

We are deeply integrated, and we create millions of jobs in both countries through that integration.” The power of this integration transcends even the outbreak of a pandemic. When COVID-19 struck and restrictions were put on non-essential travel between the two countries, Hillman notes, all commercial trafc was deemed essential on both sides. “This partnership is vital not only to our ability to weather difcult times as we saw with COVID but also to helping the world in moments of challenge and crisis,” she says. There is no question that the U.S.- Canada trading relationship is a

180 Inbound Logistics • July 2022

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