WASHINGTON—Goods valued at more than $909 billion crossed the U.S. border in trade with Canada and Mexico in 2007, reaching a new high (4.9 percent higher than the record of more than $866 billion set in 2006) according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, released the data today as part of the fourth annual update of the North American Transportation Statistics (NATS) online database. The NATS database is co-sponsored by BTS and the U.S. Census Bureau with the federal-level transportation and statistical agencies of Canada and Mexico.

Freight weighing nearly 606 million tons was transported through U.S. land borders, airports, and seaports to and from locations in Canada and Mexico in 2007. U.S. merchandise trade with Canada and Mexico, its two largest trading partners, rose by more than $305 billion—or 50.6 percent—between 2002 and 2007.

The BTS said that the value of freight shipments moving between the United States, Canada, and Mexico grew at an average rate of nearly 8.5 percent per year between 2002 and 2007.  The total value of U.S. freight shipments with Mexico grew 49.5 percent or 8.4 percent annually while goods shipped in trade with Canada grew 51.2 percent or 8.6 percent annually).

? Trucks carried 61 percent of this freight measured by value ($555 billion in 2007),

? rail carried 15 percent

? maritime and pipeline carried 7 and 8 percent, respectively,

? and air carried 4 percent.