The Canadian segment

Canada’s internal trade is dominated by the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Together they account for a large portion of the country’s manufactured goods, which they have historically shipped across Canada in exchange for fish, lumber, and fruit from British Columbia, wheat and meat from the Prairie Provinces, and pulpwood, iron ore, and fish from the Atlantic provinces. Much of Canada’s trade abroad consists of raw or semiprocessed materials—including pulp, paper, lumber, iron ore, nickel, lead and zinc, and uranium—along with red meat sent to Britain, the United States, and Japan and wheat exported to the United States, Indonesia, Iraq, and Japan. Some oil and natural gas, as well as vegetable oils, processed fruits and vegetables, and snack foods, are sold to the United States.

Until World War II, Canada traded mainly with Britain; during that time, the United States still produced a surplus of most of the things Canada raised and thus was not a major customer. Canada, in fact, bought far more from the United States than it sold to it. By the late 20th century, however, the United States had become short of metals, wood, pulp and paper, power, and water and was importing these items from its neighbour on an increasing scale. It has thus replaced Britain as Canada’s chief market. The European Union and Japan also are important customers for Canada’s metals, wood products, and wheat.

The United States segment

Internal trade in the United States is enormous, often surpassing that among sovereign states on other continents. It was long dominated by New England’s need for fuel, cotton and wool, leather, wood products, and metals; by the mid-Atlantic states’ demand for coal, oil, natural gas, iron ore and other metals, and food products; by the Pittsburgh region’s need for iron, copper, oil, and gas; by the lower Great Lakes–Lake Michigan area’s need for coal, oil, gas, iron, pulp and paper, and wood; and by the Los Angeles–San Francisco region’s demand for steel, aluminum, cellulose products, oil, and chemicals.

Traditionally, most of the other areas of the United States have traded their raw materials or semifinished goods to these major manufacturing regions, though of course there are local industrial centres of importance. Trade is concentrated in servicing, or in being served, by such large metropolitan centres as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. These cities also handle a great deal of American foreign trade. Southeastern ports send out cotton, tobacco, and wood products, among other commodities, and the mid-Atlantic coast ports send out wheat, corn, meat, and a wide range of manufactured products.

Since the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the major cities along the Great Lakes have been directly exporting the steel products, cars, airplanes, agricultural machinery, cereals, and meat for which the northern Midwest is famous. New Orleans continues as an exporter of cotton, corn, and other agricultural products from the vast Mississippi hinterland, although oil and grain now are more important, while trade from Houston’s busy port is based on oil and chemical products. Los Angeles dominates the West Coast with its sales of computer and electronic products, transportation equipment, aircraft, ships, motion pictures, and chemicals. Seattle is important for its trade in computer and electronic products, fish and forest products, and aircraft. American imports include a wide variety of products: tropical fruits, woods, fibres, and vegetable extracts, mainly from Latin America, West Africa, and Southeast Asia; oil from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, and Colombia; tin from Peru, Indonesia, Bolivia, and Malaysia; wool principally from New Zealand and Australia; and a wide range of motor vehicles, machines, textiles, instruments, and books from Japan and western Europe.

American trade has a worldwide distribution and impact: of its export total, about one-third goes to western Europe; roughly another one-third goes to Mexico and Canada; and more than one-fifth goes to Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. . Of almost equal importance has been the widespread influence of American foreign aid: while initially this helped American trade by being tied to the use of domestically manufactured equipment, it has become much freer and enables countries to develop their own agriculture or industry in the most satisfactory way.

The Mexican and the Central American segments

The Latin American portion of the continent includes some highly sophisticated regions, along with many as yet undeveloped areas. In Mexico’s internal trade the capital region predominates, producing most of the country’s manufactures, which are then distributed through regional cities. Mexico City consumes much of the domestically used oil piped up from the coast, the metals of the Cordilleran mines, the cotton of the irrigated central and western basins, and hemp from Yucatán. Petroleum exports became a steadily growing part of Mexico’s external trade following the discovery of vast oil reserves in the Bay of Campeche in 1972. Within a decade, petroleum sales represented by far the greatest portion of Mexican export earnings. The oil exports have given Mexico higher income, but they also have placed the country in danger of becoming overly dependent on a commodity that is subject to market fluctuations. In an effort to avoid the consequences of such dependence, the government has attempted to diversify the country’s export economy. This effort has involved expanding Mexico’s industrial base, increasing the export of manufactured goods, and augmenting the export of agricultural goods and metals.

Imports consist predominantly of manufactured goods and of parts and materials needed for Mexican industries. Machinery, vehicles, and consumer goods are the chief items. The United States has the greatest share of Mexico’s foreign trade, providing the greatest portion of the imports and exports. Since 1960, however, more of Mexico’s trade has been oriented toward Latin America. Mexico is also trying to send more winter fruits and vegetables, textiles, and leather goods to Canada.

Central America has developed a limited amount of trade. By far the greatest exports are tropical fruits, coffee, sugar, fibres, and minerals (especially from the Caribbean), which are sent to the United States in exchange for American manufactured goods. Increasingly, virtually the whole of North America is being integrated in its economic development with the growth of the United States.