The U.S.-Brazil-China Trade and Transportation Triangle: Implications for the Southwest Region
Leigh B. Boske and John C. Cuttino, University of Texas at Austin, March 2009, 130 pp. (167861-1)
The advent of globalization and more integrated international trade has placed increased demands on transportation infrastructure. This report assesses the impacts of triangular trade between and among the United States, Brazil and China with an emphasis on the effects on the U.S. Southwest region. Triangular trade is viewed through a trade corridor analysis of the three sets of bilateral trading relationships. Special emphasis is given to the transportation services that delimit the capacity to carry out triangular trade with particular attention to the latest developments in services and schedules. While international trade trend analysis may point to China’s explosive consumption of raw materials from the U.S. and Brazil, this report also signals the increasing Chinese presence in the U.S. and Brazil via outsourcing and industrialization, crowding out U.S. and Brazilian domestic industry, and inhibiting Brazilian competitiveness in the U.S. Notwithstanding these trends, a counterflow or reverse globalization is also beginning to appear where Brazil and China are making investments in each other and the U.S. in order to secure their raw materials and access consumer markets. Future analysis of transportation infrastructure demand in the U.S. Southwest region may need to be flexible to account for these developments, first visible through a trade corridor analysis of the movement of goods across complete supply chains.
Keywords: U.S.-China Trade, U.S.-Brazil Trade, China-Brazil Trade, Maritime Transportation, Supply Chains, Intermodal Transportation, Transportation Corridors
ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 1.3 MB)