Borderlands Mexico: US trade with Canada, Mexico hit $134B in January


Mexico was the top U.S. trade partner in January, with cross-border commerce increasing 7.8% year over year to $69.61 billion. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)
Mexico was the top U.S. trade partner in January, with cross-border commerce increasing 7.8% year over year to $69.61 billion. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: US trade with Canada, Mexico hit $134B in January; Appliance maker announces $668M expansion in Mexico; LG Electronics plans $100M investment in Reynosa, Mexico; and Meyer Distributing opens a logistics facility in West Texas.

Despite ongoing global trade turmoil, U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico rose a combined 8% year over year in January to $134.4 billion.

Mexico was the top U.S. trade partner in January, with cross-border commerce increasing 7.8% year over year to $69.61 billion, while trade with Canada saw an 8.6% year-over-year gain to $64.8 billion.

China was the third-ranked U.S. trade partner in January, totaling $51.5 billion, a 7.6% year-over-year increase.

John F. Kennedy International Airport was the No. 1 international U.S. trade gateway in January, totaling $49.3 billion, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by WorldCity.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport was the second-ranked U.S. gateway for international trade at $31.9 billion during January, followed by third-ranked Port of Los Angeles at $31.1 billion.

Port Laredo, Texas, was the No. 4-ranked U.S. trade gateway in January, the port of entry’s lowest ranking since 2018. Trade at Port Laredo totaled $27.9 billion in January, an 11% year-over-year increase.

The latest trade arrives as an escalating trade war has seen countries around the globe impose a myriad of import duties on products such as steel, aluminum, pork, beef, motorcycles, whiskey, wine and champagne.

The European Union and Canada on Wednesday placed new trade duties on about $49 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel from all countries.

The EU said it will allow the suspension of existing 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the U.S. to lapse on April 1. Those tariffs target a range of U.S. products that respond to the economic harm done on $8.7 billion of European steel and aluminium exports, the European Commission said.

Trump paused until April 2 across-the-board tariffs that had been set for March 4 on goods from Canada and Mexico that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Mike Short, president of global forwarding at C.H. Robinson, said since the pause of tariffs on Canada and Mexico for USMCA-compliant goods, there have been increasing requests from shippers to have their goods qualified under USMCA guidelines.

Freight forwarding giant C.H. Robinson (Nasdaq: CHRW) manages more than 1.5 million cross-border shipments between Mexico and the U.S. annually, including one out of 10 northbound truckload movements, the company said.



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