The volumes of truck and rail freight coming into the U.S. from its immediate neighbors have experienced a complete reversal, with Canada being knocked off its perch as representing the greatest volumes, ceding that spot to Mexico, according to figures released September 30 by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Mexico’s land freight volumes into the U.S. started to exceed Canada’s sometime around 2016, long before President Donald Trump started a trade war with the U.S.’s northern neighbor in February 2025.
Incoming freight border crossings by truck and rail into the U.S. from Canada fell last year to near levels not seen since the pandemic and the financial crisis of 2008-9, the BTS statistics show.
The “U.S.-Canadian Border Land-Freight Gateways: Number of Incoming Truck or Train Crossings” figures show that, after peaking in 2000 at more than 7 million crossings, the truck crossings volume fell to just over 5 million in 2009. The figure then rose over the next ten years, but dipped again in 2020 to 5.21 million. In 2025, there were 5.27 million truck crossings. Rail crossings followed a more pronounced decline, falling from 33,447 in 2000 to 20,152 in 2025.
By contrast, incoming border truck and rail freight crossings from Mexico into the U.S. have risen steadily in the last 25 years. Truck crossings increased from 4.53 million in 2000 to a peak in 2024 of 7.62 million, dipping slightly to 7.59 million last year. Train crossings went from 7,108 in 2000, again with a dip in 2009 and 2020, to 11,309 in 2025, close to the record of 11,394 in 2024.
The figures for overall imports tell a similar story. Total imports from Canada into the U.S., according to U.S. Census figures, have softened over the past three years, while the value of imports from Mexico have overtaken them. Canada’s exports to the U.S. were $381.9 billion in 2025, compared to $230.8 billion in 2000, spiking in 2008 to $339.5 billion, then $349.3 billion in 2014 and finally an all-time high of $437.4 billion in 2022. Mexican exports to the U.S. have risen steadily since 2000, except for 2009, reaching $534.3 billion in 2025, from $135.9 billion in 2000.
