Mexico surpasses Canada in imports of U.S. products, according to April 2025 results released by the Census Bureau.

While Mexican purchases of products from the United States were 27,846 million dollars in that month, Canadian purchases from the same origin totaled 27,179 million dollars.

Mexico is already the leading exporter of goods to the U.S. market and the leading trading partner of the United States.

From January to April 2025, U.S. exports to Mexico totaled $111.891 billion dollars. Those sent to Canada totaled 114.971 billion dollars. However, this gap has narrowed in recent years and Mexico is expected to overtake Canada in annual terms in the near future.

Mexico surpasses Canada in imports

April was an atypical month. Trump imposed tariffs on dozens of countries and increased tariffs on China. He also made persistent social media references to Canada as the 51st state. In response, an unknown number of Canadians staged boycotts by reducing or canceling purchases of U.S.-origin products. 

After President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an extraordinary statement that largely went unnoticed in the heat of the moment.

As of March 4, the United States imposed an emergency tariff of 25% on most goods originating in Canada and 10% on Canadian energy imports. It exempted products that comply with the Mexico-United States-Canada Agreement (T-MEC) and a 10% tariff on potash imports, effective March 7, 2025.

In 2024, approximately 38% of Canadian products entered the United States in compliance with T-MEC rules and were therefore exempt from tariffs.

Bilateral Relations

The United States and Canada have historically maintained good relations and productive integration in several industries, most notably energy and automotive. 

Over the past decades, bilateral trade has been governed by three agreements:

• The 1989 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement.
• The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994.
• Since July 2020 and currently, the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA).

After Trump imposed the emergency tariffs on Canada last March, then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a historic phrase: “The fentanyl excuse he gives today for these tariffs is completely fictitious, completely unjustified, completely false.”

He added: “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because then it will be easier to annex us.”