UPS has made UPS Trade Direct Air and Ocean services available between Europe, the USA, and Canada.
UPS Trade Direct is an integrated, multi-modal service that combines air or ocean freight and customs clearance with express and less-than-truckload (LTL) delivery. This service works as follows: Goods destined for shipment to the United States and Canada from Europe are individually packed, labeled, and then combined into a single consolidated shipment. After being transported by air or sea, the goods pass through customs as a consolidated shipment. Then, the shipment is broken down back into individual packages or LTL loads and placed directly into the UPS system for final delivery, bypassing costly warehouse storage. Because UPS handles the goods throughout the entire process, customers can track the progress of each package using UPS tracking and notification technology.
North America and Europe are two independent centers of global trade. In 2004 alone, trade between the United States and the European Union amounted to 441.5 billion USD, while bilateral trade between Canada and the European Union reached 62.9 billion USD.