Good friends and good trading partners: Alaska and Canada share more than just a common border.

• Author: Martin, Gary L.

Alaska and Canada could be considered Siamese twins, attached at the hip of their 1,500-mile geographic border. They also share a common history that is framed by the Klondike Gold rush and the construction of the Alaska Highway during World War II. As for the indigenous populations, their ties go back centuries.

From the standpoint of economics, Alaska and Canada also are interdependent and close trading partners. Between 1990 and 2004, Canada was Alaska's third-largest trading partner behind Japan and Korea. Last year, China, the 1,000-pound giant on the horizon, took 9.8 percent of Alaska's exports, moving it into third place. But in 2005, Canada's imports of our products did go up .5 percent to 6.5 percent, but China's went up 3.8 percent. Canada was interested primarily in seafood, forest products and some minerals.

But a trading relationship depends on many other things. It is also difficult to keep accurate numbers, since trade between the United States and Canada is the largest trading relationship in the world. According to the most accessible figures, in 2003, two-way trade in goods and services surpassed $441.5 billion. The U.S. sold $195.8 billion worth of goods and services to Canada while receiving $245.8 billion in return. It is said that 37,000 trucks cross the border each day and 58 percent of them cross at only five border crossings.

Since 1989, when the U.S. and Canada implemented the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, trade between the two countries doubled.

So it is very difficult to accurately determine whether all the goods coming to Alaska from the Lower 48 are or are not coming from Canada and visa versa. Many products are first sent from Alaska to the Lower 48 and could end up unaccounted for in Canada. The same thing can easily happen in reverse.

STILL A GOOD PARTNERSHIP

"I think the trade relations are excellent and will remain so, as far in the future as we can see," said Charles Becker, director for the Alaska Export Assistance Center in Anchorage, for the United States Department of Commerce.

"They're strong, they're significant and they're long-standing. Alaska has exported a variety of commodities, which include some minerals like gold, zinc and lead. They are mined in Alaska, then shipped to Canada for refining. There is seafood, both processed and unprocessed, and I believe there are also some forest products that are sent to Canada and turned into wood products.

"It's also a market that Alaskans are...