The economic importance of trade is no more apparent than in U.S. border communities. The Border Trade Alliance (BTA) as an organization that represents border communities and trade has witnessed how cities along both the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders are integrally linked economically with their counterparts north and south and through them, the rest of the global economy. The reliance upon cross-border trade has grown along with the volume of trade with Canada and Mexico.
Canada remains the largest destination for U.S. exports, receiving $206.6 billion of U.S. goods through October of this year alone. Mexico remains the second largest market for U.S. products with over $114 billion in products crossing in from the United States through October 2007. In fact, trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners was 5.5 percent higher in September 2007 than in September 2006, reaching $66.8 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
A recent op-ed written by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), highlights the impact of trade in Texas and to the United States. An excerpt of the article follows:
Exchange of goods is good
By KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
Special to the Star-Telegram
Mon. December 10, 2007Pioneering free-market economist Adam Smith once said, “The answer to the question of free trade is easy once it is seen that the only reason that has ever been offered for protective tariffs or a closed market is, indeed, protection.”
In just over a decade, major developments in U.S. trade policy have allowed Texas to wield trade not only as an instrument of freedom but one of productivity and prosperity for the benefit of our citizens.
Read the full article here.
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