The Numbers:

U.S. Goods Trade With World, 2001: $1870 billion

U.S. Goods Trade with Canada, 2001: $380 billion

What They Mean:

Since passage of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1989, the United States and Canada have developed the largest trade relationship in world history. Canada's exports to the U.S. are equal to those of the entire European Union, or to those of Japan and China combined. As a U.S. export market the figures are comparable; Canada bought $163 billion worth of American goods last year - $60 billion more than second-ranked Mexico, and nearly three times as much as Japan -- and was the top market for 37 of the 50 states. Canada's role as services trade and direct investment partner, at about a twelfth of the total in both cases, is somewhat smaller but still considerable.

By product, trade in automotive goods (totaling $100 billion last year) is the largest fraction of U.S.-Canada trade. Canada is our largest export market for cars, trucks and parts, and equals Japan as an auto exporter to the United States. Much of the auto trade crosses the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, making the bridge reputedly the world's single busiest commercial crossing. Trade in other products, though, has grown somewhat more rapidly than autos since the mid-1990s - U.S. exports of scientific instruments, transport equipment and other high-value products have been strong, as have Canada's sales of petroleum, natural gas, direct electric current and manufactures.

Despite the free trade agreement, border trade disputes related to agriculture and natural resources remain frequent. Sometimes these can be resolved amicably; since conclusion of a broad agricultural trade agreement in December 1998, American sales of live cattle to Canada have risen from about 37,000 to 300,000 head per year. Sometimes they can't -- the Bush Administration imposed 27 percent tariffs on Canadian lumber after the expiration of a Clinton-era trade agreement in March of 2001.

Further Reading:

The U.S. Embassy in Canada on trade:
www.usembassycanada.gov/content/content.asp
?section=can_usa&document=trade

And border security:
www.usembassycanada.gov/content/content.asp?
section=can_usa&subsection1=borderissues
&document=borderissues_smartbordersummary_090902

The Canadian Embassy trade page:
www.canadianembassy.org/trade/wltr-e.asp

Deputy Chief of Mission Bertin Cote speaks to the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canada Premiers on trade and border security: www.canadianembassy.org/trade/020826-e.asp

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick balances Michigan-Canada trade promotion and homeland security:
www.ndol.org/blueprint/2002_jul_aug/12_detroit.html

The Ambassador Bridge home page:
www.ambassadorbridge.com/index.htm.

The U.S.-Canada Agricultural Trade Agreement:
www.ustr.gov/pdf/us_cn_ag.pdf

The Canadian Wheat Board joins softwood lumber, dairy and magazines among the longest-running sources of U.S.-Canada disputes. The Board is at: www.cwb.ca/en/index.jsp;

Its American critics make their case at:
www.wheatworld.org/html/news.cfm?ID=46