This week, I had the unique opportunity to accompany Prime Minister Mark Carney on his expedited visit to Mexico City, where he met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Our visit to Mexico lasted approximately 25 hours. However, as my colleague based in Mexico City, Emiliano Rodriguez Mega, and I reported, Mr. Carney successfully achieved a crucial objective: rebuilding Mexico’s trust amidst the challenges posed by potential tariffs from President Trump.
The two leaders devised a comprehensive “action plan.” Canadian officials emphasized that this plan wasn’t merely symbolic, but a concrete initiative featuring scheduled bilateral meetings, clearly defined objectives, and a specific timeline.
The meeting with President Sheinbaum clearly illustrated Mr. Carney’s evolving approach to navigating relations with Mr. Trump. As our colleague Matina Stevis-Gridneff previously noted in her news analysis, “Mr. Carney is encountering early difficulties, realizing that campaigning on an anti-Trump platform doesn’t necessarily translate into governing with one.”
In Mexico, the joint plan outlined by the leaders focused on enhancing railway and shipping port capacities, alongside the development of “energy corridors” between their nations. The strategic aim is to bolster bilateral trade, compensating for potential sales reductions to the United States due to its imposing tariff policies.
Before his return flight to Ottawa on Friday afternoon, Mr. Carney highlighted the railway component of their binational strategy. He visited a railway terminal operated by the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway, headquartered in Calgary.
Following a minor incident where an abbreviation on some newly painted rail cars could be misinterpreted – requiring quick intervention from aides to cover the letters – the prime minister; his wife, Diana Fox Carney; and two cabinet ministers inspected bags of Canadian wheat, adorned with maple leafs, used as props for the event. They then observed the actual process of wheat being unloaded from CPKC hopper cars, demonstrating the real-world flow of goods from Canada to Mexico.
The 2023 merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern significantly expanded its rail network not only across the United States but also deep into Mexico.
My colleague Peter Eavis recently reported that CPKC is among several railways investing heavily in their U.S. operations. Their goal is to enhance competitiveness against trucking services.
Peter also drew attention to a significant shift expected in U.S. railroads if a proposed merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern materializes. Such a union would establish the first coast-to-coast railroad in the United States, a convenience Canadians have largely enjoyed since the 19th-century inception of Canadian Pacific.
This change is more than merely symbolic. Currently, transporting freight from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast by train in the United States necessitates switching rail lines in the Midwest. The receiving railroad typically prioritizes cargo that originated on its own network, which can frequently cause delays. A merged railroad, however, would streamline this process, allowing transcontinental shippers to engage with just one company.
The formation of CPKC has already resulted in reduced delays and other advantages for businesses shipping goods between Canada and Mexico.
Barry Prentice, who directs the Transport Institute at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, shared his perspective, noting limited scope for further improvements in Canada-Mexico rail shipping.
“The fundamental infrastructure is already well-established,” he explained.
Professor Prentice further highlighted that CPKC recently inaugurated a second bridge across the Texas-Mexico border. This development not only boosted the railway’s freight hauling capacity but also significantly accelerated border inspection processes.
Additionally, he mentioned that Canadian National, CPKC’s Montreal-based competitor, has a standing agreement with Ferromex, Mexico’s other primary railway, to transport containers originating on its tracks.
However, Canada and Mexico face inherent limitations in enhancing other modes of transportation without the active involvement and cooperation of the United States.
Despite the original North American Free Trade Agreement intending to permit Mexican trucks unrestricted access across the continent, this never fully materialized, leading to ongoing inefficiencies in cross-border logistics.
Mexico is actively upgrading its ports. In Canada, a new container port in Montreal is among the initial five critical infrastructure projects that Mr. Carney’s administration has prioritized, designating them as essential for national interest.
Yet, Professor Prentice pointed out that establishing a truly efficient and effective north-south shipping corridor would necessitate the United States lifting its long-standing prohibition on foreign ships loading cargo in one U.S. port and unloading it at another. This same restriction also applies to international airline passengers and air freight.
“It would simply be unfeasible to operate a Canadian or Mexican container ship, for instance, if it were expected to pick up and drop off cargo at various points along the entire North American coastline,” he elaborated.
Intriguingly, Professor Prentice has one unconventional transportation concept that neither President Sheinbaum nor Prime Minister Carney—indeed, no one in either government—is publicly advocating:
“For a truly innovative approach, Canada and Mexico should invest in constructing enormous cargo airship hangars and actively support the development of cargo airships. This would significantly expand our capacity for trading perishable food products,” he suggested. “My research indicates that a cargo airship, comparable in size to historical zeppelins, could effectively compete with traditional tractor-trailer freight.”
Trans Canada
This section was compiled by Vjosa Isai, a reporter at The Times based in Toronto.
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