Technical documentation 6-1b: Mexican Merchandise Trade With Canada and the United States by Mode of Transportation (Millions of current U.S. dollars)

Foreign merchandise trade: data collection and sources, The source information are the customs records of entry and / or exit of goods that are carried out through customs declaration, and is responsible for processing the Statistics Working Group Foreign Trade, made up by Banco de Mexico, INEGI, Servicio de Administracion Tributaria and Secretaria de Economia; and INEGI is the responsible for disseminating official statistics.

The main source of information is the declaration that individuals and legal entities submit to the customs authority in Mexico, which is known as the Customs declaration, from which trade transactions are recorded export or import. Once the month of reference is concluded, the information is integrated into a database that serves as input to start the statistical treatment, thus obtaining monthly trade balance and the annual information at the end of a cumulative period of 12 months.

Merchandise trade, definitions: The International Merchandise Trade Statistics of Mexico are compiled according to the general system, as prescribed in the Manual of Concepts and Definitions of the United Nations (UN); which recommended to record all goods which add to or subtract from the stock of material resources of a country by entering (imports) or leaving (exports) in its economic territory.

It also follows the criteria of country of origin for the registration of imports and the last known destination for exports. The triangular-type operations are not identified.

Rating Imports: The value of imported goods is calculated on a FOB basis (Free on Board), which is defined as the sales value of the goods in their country of origin and only includes the transaction value of goods and services provided and does not include the cost for freight, transportation, and insurance. This allows calculation of total imports CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) or CSF (Cost, Insurance and Freight), which is defined as the cost of the goods plus insurance and freight transport to the port of customs entry. This value is the result of the sum of the total import value FOB value plus the total value of CIF or freight and insurance expenses.

Valuation of exports: Exports are valued FOB (Free on Board), and refers to the sale value of the goods at the border exit of Mexico (including domestic freight charges for bringing the goods to the border of exporting country).

Conversion of Mexico´s Merchandise Trade from Current Mexican Pesos to US Current Dollars: Two sources were used to obtain Mexico/US Currency Exchange Conversion Factors. Currency conversion factors for years 1990, 1995 and 1996 were obtained from the International Financial Statistics Yearbook, of the International Monetary Fund. Currency conversion factors for years 1997 through to 2016 were retrieved from the Banco de Mexico website.

Method of Transportation: The mode of transportation considered for foreign trade statistics refers to the mode of transport used at the time the goods arrived in the country (import) and used at the time of crossing the border leaving the country (exports). For example, if the merchandise imported by Mexico from Canada entered by ship, to the custom of Veracruz, but are cleared in the custom of Pantaco in Mexico City, where they arrived by truck, then the mode reported in Mexico´s international trade statistics will be by sea, because the mode of transport for entering the country was by ship.

The statistics presented in Table 6-1b for total exports and imports are final, while the figures that refer to exports and imports by mode of transport are preliminary. The sum of the modes of transport does not match the total trade figure, since the mode of transport data "Postal and other" have not been included in the modal subcategories, but have been considered in the overall totals.

Table 6-1b: Mexican Merchandise Trade With Canada and the United States by Mode of Transportation (Millions of current U.S. dollars)