GLOBALLOGISTICS
‹ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45
NAFTA’s New Trade Highs
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T he United States, Canada, and Latin America have the potential to form the world’s next great trading bloc–as long as the nations move quickly to improve transportation infrastructure and simplify customs requirements. Such is the opinion of UPS Chairman and CEO Mike Eskew, voiced in June at the U.S. Commerce Department’s inau- gural Americas Competitiveness Forum, which brings together North American government, private sector, academia, and non-governmental organization leaders to develop strategies for opti- mizing trade. “Latin America, home to a half-bil- lion people south of the U.S.-Mexico border, has the potential to be the next hotbed of trade and economic growth,” said Eskew. In addition, Latin America’s real GDP is expected to grow 4.4 per- cent annually–a faster rate than Asia (3.6 percent) and the global average (2.8 percent)–making it certain to be a major global trade focus. The North American Free Trade
March to the Top T rade using surface transportation between the U.S. and its NAFTA partners reached $69.8 billion in March 2007, the highest monthly level ever recorded. This total marks a 17.4-percent increase from March 2005. The NAFTA trade boom should continue as long as the three countries work to simplify Customs processes and improve infrastructure.
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18.7% increase in imports (03/2005 — 03/2007) 15.7% increase in exports (03/2005 — 03/2007)
17.4% increase in total surface trade (03/2005 — 03/2007)
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SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
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more trade than the United States con- ducts with China, the CEO noted. Recent numbers from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) sup- port his assertions: Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its NAFTA partners reached $69.8 billion in March 2007, the high- est monthly level ever recorded ( see chart above ). In April, the most recent month for which statistics are available, U.S.-NAFTA trade tallied a solid $65 bil- lion, 5.3 percent higher than in April 2006. And, since NAFTA’s implementa- tion in 1994, trade growth between the United States and its northern and southern neighbors has increased steadily. The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico jumped 97 percent from March 1997 to March 2007, with imports growing 110.4 percent and exports increasing 81.6 percent during those 10 years, according to BTS. But continued, uninterrupted growth among the three nations is not neces- sarily a sure thing. “Although we’re neighbors, we have so many compli-
Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico already has created the second-largest trading bloc in the world behind the European Union, and accounts for far
46 Inbound Logistics • July 2007
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