NPR: Quick! ... Name America's No. 1 Trading Partner

Quick! ... Name America's No. 1 Trading Partner

OK, pop quiz. Can you name America's No. 1 trading partner in 2006?

China? Nope. It's No. 2, despite the glut of news stories about potentially dangerous toys, toxic pet food and contaminated toothpaste.

Mexico? Wrong -- No. 3. Japan? Germany? Britain? Korea?

No, the correct answer is ... Canada! Yes, the land of Celine Dion, curling and socialized medicine is both the United States' largest market for exports and its biggest source of imports. Must be all those BlackBerries -- assuming they're not counting comedians and media types.

In honor of this honor, allow me to present "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Canadian Idiot." Apologies to Green Day.

2:52 PM ET | 08-20-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

A couple of statistics from the Economic Policy Institute (while we wait for Canada to invade us)

....Lastly, the trade deficit also has national security implications. These economic security concerns are amplified by the special role of China, which now accounts for almost 30% of the deficit ... China is now the world's second largest holder of U.S. treasury debt, it has the largest trade surplus with the United States, and many U.S. companies are investing heavily in production facilities in China and transferring state of the art manufacturing technology there.....

Meanwhile, in Canada:
The total credit card debt of United States consumers exceeds the entire gross domestic product of Canada.

May I suggest these lines from South Park's 'Blame Canada:'

"We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming us!"

......fred call aka bigbro

Sent by fred call | 5:40 PM ET | 08-20-2007

Send a Comment

Comments are reviewed and edited by NPR prior to display. All comments will be read, but not all will be posted.

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
Please send me updates from NPR.	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)

Tom Regan

Blogger

About Us

This year's election cycle has been one of the most exciting in memory. At the NPR News Blog we'll do our best to bring you interesting, informative -- and controversial -- stories from our own reporters and bloggers, as well as the rest of the best of the Internet and blogosphere. And we hope you'll let us know what you think as well.

Want to learn more? Be sure to read our Frequently Asked Questions and our discussion guidelines.