News Of Canada’s Return To No. 1 Lost Amid Ambassador Bridge Protest

Canada conducted more trade with the United States in 2021 than any nation ever, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday, and it ranked No. 1 for the first time since 2014.

Unfortunately, that news was subsumed by the Covid-related truckers’ protest at the Ambassador Bridge, where 20% of that trade occurred. That’s the private-sector span connecting Detroit, “the Motor City,” and Windsor, Ontario across Lake Michigan.

Because the automotive industry remains so important to the area, the government of Ontario declared a state of emergency Friday ordered to try to stem the damage from truckers and other vehicles blocking the four-lane bridge built nearly a century ago. Hours later, A Canadian judge ordered the protest to end, though it was not clear at this writing how that would be enforced.

But here’s the thing: Detroit and the Ambassador Bridge are no longer the sole center of international trade for the automotive industry.

That ship has sailed. The center is at best shared with the Port Laredo and the 14-lane World Trade Bridge, which opened in 2000.

Port Laredo is the nation’s No. 1 land bridge and has been since 2010, according to my analysis of Census data. In 2021, for the first time, total trade through Port Laredo topped trade over the Ambassador Bridge by more than $100 billion.

Both, however, are heavily reliant on the automotive sector.

For example, Port Laredo handled a nation-leading 26% of the leading category of motor vehicle parts in 2021, the nation’s seventh most valuable import. That’s more than double the 11% handled by the Ambassador Bridge, which ranked second.

On the export side, Port Laredo handled a nation-leading 29% of in that motor vehicle category, one of several, while the Ambassador Bridge accounted for 16%, also good for a second-place ranking.

With passenger vehicle imports, the entry points are more dispersed. Canada accounted for 10% in 2021, second the Port of Baltimore’s 11% with Port Laredo fourth, at 7.0%, behind the Port of Brunswick in Georgia.

But when it comes to commercial vehicles and even those tractor rigs that pull those trailers, the kind now blocking the Ambassador Bridge, that’s a Texas and not a Michigan story.

Eagle Pass, a neighbor to Laredo, accounted for 35% of commercial vehicle imports in 2021, followed by Port Laredo at 20% — a majority.

In 2021, 60% of the tractor rigs came from Mexico, with all but 5% of those moving through Laredo. For Canada, the total was 2.4%. In fact, it’s safe to assume quite a few of those protestors using their 18-wheelers to block the Ambassador Bridge were driving rigs built in Mexico.

In a sense then, this is a good news, bad news story.

Automotive is a diversified supply chain. That’s good news — and what experts and non-experts alike have been genuflecting over since the start of the supply chain challenges that arose from the pandemic and enormous government spending.

It’s good news for Laredo, to be sure, but also the country, which won’t be as severely affected. It’s even a little bit of good news, perhaps short-lived, for Port Huron’s Blue Sky Bridge, a neighbor of sorts to the Ambassador Bridge. But it’s bad for the Detroit-Windsor area.

The change in trading patterns, from Canada to Mexico, from Detroit to Port Laredo, might have happened without the North America Free Trade Agreement, which in effect brought Mexico into an existing Canada-U.S. FTA.

But certainly, NAFTA accelerated the surge in automotive and overall trade between the United States and Mexico. Mexico was the nation’s second-ranked trade partner in 2021, narrowly missing the top spot for what would have been the second time in three years.

It’s not as if Detroit-Windsor area officials didn’t see it coming. In 2004, a new bridge was proposed to cross Lake Michigan at Detroit and Windsor.

While the Ambassador Bridge owner was fighting local, state and federal government efforts on both sides of the border to build this government-run bridge, one that would skirt smaller city streets on the Windsor side, the World Trade Bridge, one of four Laredo-area bridges, was adding lanes. In addition, Laredo has significant rail connections and traffic.

That second bridge, which in 2018 finally succeeded against efforts to stop it, will be known as the Gordie Howe International Bridge, aptly named for the legendary Canadian-born skater for the Detroit Red Wings.

It will open in 2024.https://www.detroitnews.us/2022/02/11/judge-grants-injunction-to-end-ambassador-bridge-blockade/