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Table 2-4: U.S. Land Exports to and Imports from Canada and Mexico by Mode ($ millions)

Trade with Canada by land modes is significantly higher than trade with Mexico. However, trade across the Mexican border has grown much more quickly than trade on the Canadian border over the past few years. Imports and exports to Mexico measured by value grew by 102 percent and 88 percent respectively between 1996 and 2004. Imports and exports to Canada, by contrast, grew by 52 percent and 22 percent respectively.

Table in Excel format | Historical data

empty Cell 1996 2000 2003 2004
Exports to Canada, total 139,109.7 154,847.4 154,870.8 170,295.4
Truck 102,743.0 129,825.3 124,235.0 135,897.5
Rail 15,678.7 12,946.5 14,776.5 16,596.6
Pipeline 162.2 161.6 759.6 1,584.2
Other1 20,467.5 11,913.4 15,099.2 17,776.7
Mail 58.3 0.6 0.4 23.1
Exports to Mexico, total 51,753.4 97,158.9 85,614.8 97,303.7
Truck 44,091.8 82,389.2 70,550.8 79,349.2
Rail 5,119.2 10,495.8 11,264.9 13,632.9
Pipeline 2.3 301.8 155.3 87.2
Other1 2,540.1 3,972.0 3,643.3 4,216.4
Mail - (R) 0.0 0.4 18.1
Imports from Canada, total 156,206.6 210,270.5 207,448.4 236,734.9
Truck 98,400.8 127,816.3 116,714.1 132,762.1
Rail 39,811.0 49,699.2 49,980.9 57,947.2
Pipeline 12,796.2 23,117.1 31,451.3 36,828.3
Other1 4,968.4 9,571.0 9,236.6 8,994.4
Mail 6.9 4.1 0.3 0.2
FTZ2 223.4 62.8 65.3 202.6
Imports from Mexico, total 63,312.2 113,436.5 114,842.8 127,646.3
Truck 48,350.0 88,668.7 92,535.0 104,943.8
Rail 12,297.7 21,056.1 19,701.7 20,183.4
Pipeline 8.1 11.5 0.2 0.3
Other1 639.2 1,573.9 1,600.1 1,838.7
Mail 1.5 0.6 0.0 0.0
FTZ2 2,015.6 2,125.7 1,005.4 679.8

Key: - = value too small to report.

1Other includes "flyaway aircraft" or aircraft moving under their own power (i.e., aircraft moving from the manufacturer to a customer and not carrying any freight), powerhouse (electricity), vessels moving under their own power, pedestrians carrying freight, and unknown and miscellaneous.
2Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) were added as a mode of transport for land import shipments beginning in April 1995. Although FTZs are treated as a mode of transportation in the Transborder Surface Freight Data, the actual mode for a specific shipment into or out of an FTZs is unknown because U.S. Customs does not collect this information.

Note: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transborder Surface Freight Data, available at www.bts.gov/transborder as of July 13, 2005.

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