Canada's trucker protesters could not have picked a better spot to disrupt the export-driven country's economy, or the North American auto industry, than the four-lane Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, trade experts say.
against a replacement by the billionaire Moroun family that controls it and charges trucks $45 per crossing.The bridge carries about $360 million a day in two-way cargoes - 25% of the value of all U.S.-Canada goods trade. But traffic is limited by its 1929 physical footprint: just two lanes each way with no shoulders and antiquated customs plazas, emptying out into city streets on the Canadian side.
The Biden administration has focused on unclogging containers at U.S. seaports, but the Detroit-Windsor crossing and a U.S.- Mexico bridge at Laredo, Texas are the two most important U.S. border entry points for North American manufacturing, Ujczo said. Both exports and imports surged during the year from pandemic-depressed levels and Canada's U.S. trade surplus more than tripled to $48 billion, according toThe trade crossing's shutdown and delays at the Blue Water Bridge, 65 miles north of the Ambassador, have impacted auto plants, and other manufacturers from cosmetics to pharmaceuticals.
The economic damage is now spilling down to small businesses that supply components for other auto parts makers and food ingredients, said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
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