The Boise metropolitan area ranks high among its peers for trade throughout North America, according to a new report released by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. (1)

The report assesses trade between major metropolitan areas of the United States, Canada and Mexico 20 years after the adoption of North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. It focuses on exports coming from advanced industries, which are defined as “high-value engineering and R&D-intensive industrial concerns that are the prime movers of regional and national prosperity.”

Source:  Brookings

According to the research, metro Boise’s North American trade value was almost $1.6 billion in 2010. This was high enough to rank the area 80^th among the 432 metro areas with populations of at least 100,000. By two other measures metropolitan Boise ranked even higher. The area ranked 14^th in trade with Mexico or Canada at 33 percent of its global trade, and 11^th in trade from advanced industries at 67 percent. Those measures underscore the importance and value of the area’s trade with our neighboring countries.

The Toronto metropolitan was Boise’s top Canadian trade partner at $130 million followed by Montréal at $74 million. But trade with Mexico made up the bulk of the Boise area’s North American trade value – $818 million – with Mexico City its top partner at $125 million followed by Monterrey at $90 million.

It is no surprise with high-tech giants like Micron Technology Inc. in the area that electronics made up the bulk of the value of goods going to both countries. Electronics accounted for $640 million of total trade value, dwarfing number two agricultural products at just $49 million.