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The study found Houston accounted for nearly $36 billion dollars in goods traded within North America in 2010, the most recent year for which complete data exist.
Houston’s top trading partner in Mexico is Mexico City, chiefly because it’s the richest and most populous city in the country. But size and wealth are less important in defining Houston’s trade patterns with Canada.
Alan Berube is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
“Calgary is actually the number one [Canadian] metro trading partner with Houston because it is the source of so much petroleum that makes its way down the NAFTA corridor essentially to Houston for refining.”
Toronto and Montréal, which commonly claim the top spots as trading partners for U.S. cities, ranked second and third in trade with Houston.
Edmonton, often referred to as Canada’s oil capital, ranks fourth.
Canada and Mexico are respectively the United States’ largest trading partners.
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