HOUSTON-Houston has been lauded as an up-and-coming gateway city by a variety of sources. Recently, Brookings Institution has added Oil City and its surrounding region to the list of important trade areas by placing it high within top-10 rankings involving trading partners.

In a report issued through the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, the think tank places Houston fourth among metro-area trading pairs over $1 billion between the US and Canada. In this case, the Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land area has a total trade volume of $2.6 billion in crude petroleum with partner Calgary, AB in Canada. This partnership was topped by New York City, Detroit and Chicago's trading partnership with Toronto. The report noted that Houston and Calgary, representing "energy hubs within each nation," made sense when it came to top-10 trading relationships.

When it came to trade with Mexico, Houston metro was once again among the top 10 when it came to trading petroleum and coal products with Mexico City and electronics with Monterrey.