Modeling the Impacts of Free Trade Agreements on Domestic Transportation Gateways, Corridors, and Ports

Canada has recently made progress with several free trade agreements (FTAs), and although the government has carried out considerable analysis of their potential impact on the Canadian economy, little to no work has been done to assess the potential impact on Canada’s transportation system. The objective of the research was to estimate the impacts of recent and forthcoming FTAs on Canada’s domestic trade infrastructure. This study extended a typical computable general equilibrium simulation of an FTA by estimating high-level domestic supply chain characteristics (i.e., subnational region of origin or destination, subnational region of exit or entry, international transportation mode, port of clearance) and by converting the resulting trade flows to freight flows measured in tonnage. The results indicate that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU) may have had large impacts on Canada’s Continental and Atlantic Gateways, especially at the Port of Montreal, Quebec, as a result of trade creation with the EU. CETA also has had impacts on various crossings at the U.S. border as a result of trade diversion with the United States. Simulations, however, suggested that the Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement has had relatively small impacts, mostly concentrated in the Asia-Pacific Gateway, particularly at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia. Although the impacts were FTA-specific, this research demonstrated the need to consider FTAs in commodity forecasting and freight transportation planning, because they could make sizable changes to future freight flows on domestic transportation infrastructure.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.3141/2611-01
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309441582
• Authors:
  • Bachmann, Chris
• Publication Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1–10
• Monograph Title: Marine Transportation and International Trade
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2611
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic equilibrium; Freight traffic; International compacts; International trade; Transportation planning
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Freight Transportation; Highways; Marine Transportation; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01620082
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309441582
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-00991
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 29 2016 3:53PM