Exports of products from Mexico to the United States totaled 40.45 billion dollars in March, which represented a record, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
That amount reflected an increase of 21.1% year-on-year and exceeded the limit of 40,000 million dollars for the first time. The highest peak had been in November 2021, with 34.622 million dollars.
Mainly, Mexican foreign sales were boosted in March by higher prices for oil, steel, food and automotive products.
Despite this, Mexico moved from the first position as a trading partner of the United States, which it reached in February 2022, to the second position last March, surpassed by Canada.
Mexico also reached an all-time high as a destination for US goods exports in March, with purchases of 28.532 million dollars, an advance of 21.4, year on year. Previously, the highest data was recorded in October 2018, with 24,753 million dollars.
The United States economy would grow 3.7% in 2022, according to the latest projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The forecast for the United States was already lowered in January, largely due to the non-approval of the fiscal policy package Build Back Better and ongoing supply chain disruptions.
The further lowering of the forecast of 0.3 percentage point for 2022 last April reflects a faster withdrawal of monetary support than in the previous projection, as policy tightens to control inflation, and the impact of lower growth in trading partners. due to interruptions resulting from the war between russia and ukraine.
Total imports of products to the United States grew at a year-on-year rate of 25.1% in March, to 296,961 million dollars; while its external sales were 179,455 million dollars, a growth of 18.3% over March 2021.
As for Canada, its exports to the US market increased 35.8%, to 40,451 million dollars, and its imports from the United States amounted to 32,417 million, an increase of 15.8 percent.
For its part, China, which maintains a trade war with the United Statesregistered exports to that country for 42,260 million dollars in March, an annual growth of 5%, and, in the opposite direction, imports for 11,594 million dollars, a drop of 7.6% year-on-year.
With these results, Canada comprised a 15.3% share of the total imports and exports of goods from the United States, followed by Mexico (14.5%) and China (12.8 percent).
The largest US deficits in its merchandise trade in March were with China ($34 billion), Mexico ($11.9 billion) and Vietnam ($10.4 billion).