Canada Preparing Ports for NAFTA Superhighway

Yansgshan Port, China
The new Yangshan deep-water port development near Shanghai required the construction of the 31.3 km Donghai bridge. The five berths currently operational (Phase 1) have an estimated annual capacity of 2.5 million containers (twenty-foot equivalent units). By 2020, the Port will have 30 berths and an estimated capacity of 25 million containers.

Canada is developing Pacific ports to compete with the U.S. ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as well as with the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, in an attempt to draw a substantial market share of the millions of containers expected to flow into North America in the coming decades from China and the Far East.

To attract Chinese container traffic, the Canadian government has launched a major ports-rail-truck-airport transportation infrastructure designed to build its version of the emerging NAFTA Superhighway.

In October 2006, the Canadian minority government under the direction of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper launched the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, or APGCI, as a key component of Canada's national transportation policy.

The idea is to prepare deep-water Pacific Ocean ports on Canada's West Coast to facilitate the import of millions of multi-modal containers from China as a "free trade gateway" between Asia and North America.

Mexico plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south in what government officials in Mexico are calling a "Trans North America Corridor."

According to Transport Canada, Canada's equivalent to the U.S. DOT, rail and road connections through Prince Rupert and Vancouver B.C. will carry the Asian containers into Canada through Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta.

From there, the planned rail-truck-passenger superhighways will head toward Winnipeg, where cross-border connections south will direct the containers from China and the Far East onto the Interstate 35 corridor in the U.S., establishing a major link in the emerging continental NAFTA Superhighway.

The Canadian government has committed $1 billion to develop transportation infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, identified as "a network of transportation infrastructure including British Columbia's Lower Mainland and Prince Rupert ports, their principal road and rail connections stretching across Western Canada and south to the U.S., key border crossings and major Canadian airports."

Canada Transport states clearly a major purpose of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative is to increase Canada's share of North America-bound container imports from Asia.

"Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor offers world class marine, rail, road and air infrastructure closer to Asia than all its North American competitors," the Transport Canada website announces.

In Jan '07, David Emerson, minister of international trade and minister for the Pacific Gateway, led a trade delegation of Canadian transportation and logistics senior execs on a mission to Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, where Emerson and the Chinese minister of communications signed an updated agreement "to foster cooperation on intermodal transportation gateways to support international trade."

Transport Canada articulates how the vision of a North American economy has driven the development of Canadian national transportation policy.

"The integrated North American economy provides the 'platform' for Canada's successful global engagement," a brochure on the Transport Canada website proclaims in the process of explaining Canada's National Policy for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors.

According to Transport Canada, between 1995 and 2005, Canada's exports more than doubled, from $3.5 billion to $7.1 billion, in Canadian dollars.

Between 1995 and 2005, Canada's imports from China grew almost 550 percent, jumping from $3.6 billion to $29.6 billion, with these dramatic growths expected to continue.

"Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway is a burgeoning national strategy that is responding to the rise of Asian economies and the challenges and opportunities Asia now poses for Canada," the official website of the Asia-Pacific Gateway states.

The province of British Columbia has devoted $12 billion for new transportation infrastructure and has established the Asia Pacific Trade Council to build marketing links with China and the Far East.

Canada's Prince Rupert and Vancouver are both deep-water ports suited to accommodate the post-Panamax class of container Megaships China is building.