CANADIAN GRAIN TO MEXICO: "THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND..."

CPKC CEO Keith Creel, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet at a grain terminal in Mexico City and point to the National Steel Car label on a CPKC covered hopper that was manufactured in Hamilton, Ontario. CPKC

By Bill Stephens
TrainsPro

Canadian Pacific Kansas City CEO Keith Creel and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met at a grain terminal in Mexico City today to celebrate the arrival of a unit train carrying wheat grown in Manitoba.

Amid ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and its North American neighbors, CPKC has been seeking to connect customers in Canada and Mexico, using its U.S. network as a land bridge between the countries.

“This is just one example of the expanded trade options open to Western Canadian grain customers and other exporters in Canada and the United States looking to diversify their end markets,” CPKC said in a social media post. “Our trains move a variety of Canadian grains to Mexico, including wheat, oats, canola oils and specialty crops.”

The train that arrived this week in Mexico City hauled Canada Western Red Spring Wheat harvested in Manitoba. It’s a nearly 3,200-mile haul for CPKC, which was created in 2023 to tap growing North American free trade.

Although the Trump administration aims to reduce U.S. trade imbalances, Creel has said that the economies of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are inextricably linked.

If tariffs ultimately make U.S. markets less attractive to Canadian and Mexican companies, then those exporters are going to look elsewhere, Creel has said, which will allow CPKC to foster more trade between Canada and Mexico.

Also on hand for the event: Canada Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand and Minister of Canada-U.S. Trade Dominic LeBlanc.