Every day $1.2 billion worth of goods and services, ranging from hydroelectricity to blueberries, crosses the border between the United States and Canada. That translates into a staggering $800,000 in commerce per minute and the largest bilateral-trading relationship in the world.
"Some auto parts cross the border three or four times in different manufacturing stages," said John Murphy, vice president of Western hemispheric affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "That shows the degree of integration of the two economies."
Free trade has been a boon north of the border.
Canada and the United States first signed a free-trade agreement in 1989, five years later expanding it to include Mexico and creating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In its 14 years of free trade with the United States, Canada has seen exports balloon to 40 percent of its economy -- the highest proportion of any industrialized nation.
Most of those goods -- about 85 percent -- are sold in the United States. Merchandise sent south has mushroomed 250 percent since 1989 while trade in products bought from the United States has soared 150 percent, according to the Canadian government's analysis arm, Statistics Canada.
In fact, Canada now exports more to the United States than it consumes domestically in everything from finished goods to raw materials. In recent years, it surpassed Saudi Arabia as the top foreign-oil supplier to the United States.
"The interdependency between the two is huge," said Anthony Knill, Canada's consul in Miami.
That in turn has generated jobs -- one in four Canadians works in a trade-related position, according to Statistics Canada.
With the maple-leaf economy so reliant on commerce, trade is not the political hot potato that it is in the United States.
"From the days of the fur traders, Canada has always been a trading nation," Knill said. "That's the only way Canada has survived. The U.S., with its large domestic economy, doesn't have to be so dependent on trade."
For companies such as KDM Electronics of Toronto, which manufactures sound and stereo systems for public venues such as shopping malls and ice rinks, free trade has made life a lot easier.
Besides streamlining paperwork for importing components from the United States and exporting finished products to the United States, it's wiped out tariffs of about 7.5 percent.
"The free-trade agreement has made the border basically transparent," said Ron Bull, president of KDM. "There are no tariffs coming in and no tariffs going out. We're on a level playing field. That's the big advantage."
That's allowed the company to snare big clients such as Boeing Co., which bought a KDM Octasound system for its rocket assembly hangar at the Kennedy Space Center.
Both Bull and Knill say one reason trade between the United States and Canada has enjoyed so much success is the natural cultural affinity between the two countries that makes dealing with each other easy. "We know how each other works," Knill said.
Canada-Mexico trade under NAFTA has also enjoyed big growth although Mexico remains a small commercial partner for Canada. Trade volume between the two nations has seen a 15-percent jump since NAFTA's launch in 1994.
Much of the growth is due to Canada's import of products made in Mexico by foreign-controlled firms, such as motor vehicles, machinery and electronics.
NAFTA has also boosted Canadian investment in Mexico. Scotiabank bought a majority stake in Banco Inverlat, for instance.
Despite the intertwining of the U.S. and Canadian economies, the marriage is not without frictions. The partners have long fought over Canada's softwood lumber exports, for instance.
Washington alleges that the Canadian government illegally subsidizes the timber. Ottawa charges that the United States is trying to protect its own lumber industry by illegally limiting imports.
In the most recent ruling in the decades-old row, a NAFTA dispute settlement panel sided with Canada this summer, ordering the United States to lift countervailing duties it had slapped on the imported wood. Washington has appealed to the World Trade Organization, which is expected to rule next month.
"It is an irritant," Knill said. "But there is a process for managing these things."
When it comes to U.S.-Canada trade, though, such wrinkles are rare. "You are our closest neighbor, our closest friend, our closest trading partner," Knill said. "We want to make sure that this relationship continues."
