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.
“Outside of the trade community, not a lot of people know you’re not automatically included under USMCA benefits just because you’re moving products across the border,” Short told FreightWaves in an email. “Each shipper has to go through a qualification process. In the past, many avoided seeking qualification because it seemed like an extra step, especially on goods that were already duty-free. But with the new 25% tariffs and latest announcement from the White House pausing tariffs on USMCA-compliant goods, shippers have a stronger incentive to go through the qualification process for all their products.”
For goods to become USMCA-compliant, shippers must indicate that a certain percentage of a product’s value is being sourced from within the North American region.
Documentation must include a certificate of origin, containing nine data elements such as importer-exporter, certifier, producer, description and harmonized system classification of the good, origin criteria, blanket period, and authorized signature and date.
“C.H. Robinson started to see an increase of USMCA qualification and tariff classification requests before the announcement was even official. Now that the official amendments are published, these requests have only increased, and we expect this trend to continue,” Short said.
Home appliance maker Mabe said it will invest $668 million in Mexico over the next two years, aimed at strengthening the company’s innovation, design and development capabilities.
Mabe was founded in 1946 in Mexico City. The company produces everything from air conditioning units and refrigerators to washers, dryers and kitchen stoves.
The company has 15 manufacturing plants across Mexico, employing more than 10,000 people.
Mabe has a significant presence in the U.S. market through an alliance with General Electric and in Canada through its subsidiary Camco Appliances.
Mabe officials made the investment announcement during a press conference with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo on Thursday as part of the Mexican government’s Plan Mexico initiative, aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing capabilities.
LG Electronics plans to double the capacity of its television plant in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from Pharr, Texas.
The $100 million expansion will allow the company to produce 6.5 million LG OLED televisions for North American markets.
Seoul, South Korea-based LG Electronics has four factories in Mexico, generating 6,700 direct jobs.
“We reiterate our confidence in Mexico and our firm commitment to continue growing and innovating together with our partners, collaborators and customers in this important market,” LG officials told El Economista.
Meyer Distributing Inc. recently opened a cross-dock facility in Midland, Texas, according to a news release.
The facility will service Meyer’s distribution hub in Arlington, which houses one of the company’s largest inventories of automotive accessories in the region, CEO Jeff Braun said.
“The Midland dock is part of a broader West Texas rollout to beef up our logistics network,” Braun said in a statement. “We’ll have increased daily truck capacity significantly for the Midland/Odessa region for very large, commercial orders while expanding deliveries more broadly to rural West Texas reaching as far as Pecos, Fort Stockton, Sonora, Mason, Brady and other smaller market towns that aren’t getting affordable truck service.”
Meyer Distributing Inc., founded in 1937, is an automotive specialty products marketing and distribution company.
The company has more than 80 locations nationwide for customers in the U.S. and Canada.
The post Borderlands Mexico: US trade with Canada, Mexico hit $134B in January appeared first on FreightWaves.
Heather Ochoa is a news writer at the Failsafe Podcast. She has been writing about politics, health, business, parenting and finance for over a decade. She also loves to go hiking in her free time.
