Datamyne Blog

Mexico, steadily rising in rank to No. 12 among exporting nations, has eclipsed China and Canada to become the U.S.’s leading trade partner.   Mexico is now the top U.S. trade partner, ranked by total value of import and export trade, according to Descartes Datamyne’s U.S. Census data for January through…

Despite some of the most popular confections being produced in the United States, the imports of chocolates and candy still represent nearly $9 billion in value annually. For confection imports as well as the raw materials to produce them (HS 17 and 18), the first quarter is typically not…

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced an end to Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) eligibility for India and Turkey after finding the countries no longer meet the conditions for getting duty-free access to U.S. markets as developing economies.   The U.S. will end its designation of India and…

Waves of new tariffs lifted U.S. waterborne import peak shipping volumes earlier and higher than ever in 2018, while the promise of more to come pushed an atypical December surge.   U.S. import peak shipping volumes charted a new course in 2018, driven largely by steep new U.S. tariffs imposed or…

A global scramble is on to secure supplies of EV battery metals – the cobalt, graphite and lithium – that go into the batteries that make electric vehicles go.   The global market’s growing embrace of electric vehicles is driving…

A 90-day truce has been declared in the escalating trade hostilities between the U.S. and China after a sidebar meeting at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The U.S. has agreed to postpone for 90 days a tariff hike from 10% to 25%…

As the impact of shifting trade policy on the electronics sector remains to be fully seen, Descartes Datamyne has released it’s quarterly commodity report that contains detailed import and export data that shows the early effect of tariff changes. In the first half of 2018, electronics accounted for 13.4% of…

Since 1982, the softwood lumber market has been a hot topic between the United States and Canada. Both countries are heavy producers with the United States producing an average of 2.9 billion board ft. (bbf) per month and Canadian sawmill’s producing 2.37 bbf/month. Softwood lumber is a versatile product used…