Every Country's Highest Valued Export

Which export makes your country the most money? Today's map comes from Simran Khosla at Global Post, who used data from the CIA Factbook to label each country by its highest valued export.

See the maps atMental Floss.

TradeStats Express: free state and US export data

Get the latest annual and quarterly trade data with TradeStats Express™ from the Census Bureau. Retrieve, visualize, analyze, print and download your customized output.

Includes:

Global Patterns of U.S. Merchandise Trade (example: U.S. Chemical Exports and Imports for All Countries)
Product Profiles of U.S. Merchandise Trade with a Selected Market (example: All Products Traded Between the United States and United Kingdom)

Global Patterns of a State's Exports (example: Exports from Texas to each country)
State-by-State Exports to a Selected Market (example: Exports to Ireland from each state)
Export Product Profile to a Selected Market (example: Products from Texas to Iceland)

Infographic Highlights U.S.-Canada Trade

The Department of Commerce has released a new infographic, International Trade Between U.S. and Canada, which celebrates the world's largest and most comprehensive trading relationship. It illustrates the top U.S. imports from and exports to Canada and presents an annual time series of data on trade between the two neighbors. The time begins shortly after the start of an agreement between the U.S. and Canada in January 1990 to share import data to be used as the other country’s export data.

Exports from 50 U.S. Metropolitan Areas Topped $1 Trillion in 2012

From the U.S. Department of Commerce:


For the first time ever, the Houston metropolitan area ranked No. 1, with total exports of $110 billion (an increase of 5.6 percent over 2011). The New York City metro area ranked second with $102 billion in exports. Thirty-one of the top 50 metropolitan area exporters recorded positive growth in exports between 2011 and 2012. Twenty-nine of these areas set record export highs last year.

Among the top 25 metropolitan areas, the Washington, D.C., metro area recorded the highest growth between 2011 and 2012, increasing exports by nearly 43 percent. Other metropolitan areas that exhibited high growth in exports included San Antonio (up more than 33 percent from 2011), and Seattle (up more than 22 percent from 2011).


Top 10 Metropolitan Area

1. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX

2. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA

3. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA

4. Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI

5. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

6. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL

7. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI

8. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

9. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

10. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

Profile of U.S. Importing and Exporting Companies, 2009 - 2010

The U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, releases the report, A Profile of U.S. Importing and Exporting Companies, 2009 - 2010 (PDF). It provides information on identified companies and their known export or import value. Identified U.S. companies are defined as companies that can be linked to import or export transactions. The known value is the value of export or import
transactions linked to specific companies. The increases in known export and import values correspond with the overall increase of trade in 2010; total export value rose by 21.0 percent and total import value increased by 22.7 percent. The
number of identified exporters increased by 6.0 percent in 2010 and the known export value increased by 21.0 percent compared to 2009. The number of identified importers increased by 1.0 percent in 2010 and the known import value increased by 24.4 percent.

Major changes to Harmonized System coming in 2012

Did you know that there are major changes to the Harmonized System (HS) taking place in 2012? The bulk of the changes are in food-related chapters (1-21). Other chapters with notable changes include:
Water-pipe tobacco (24)
Biodiesel (27 and 38)
Mercury compounds (=> 28)
Water-jet cutting machines (85)
Video game machines (95)
Diapers, etc. (96)


Visit Export.gov to find out more.

A Profile of Canadian Exporters, 1996 to 2009

This issue [PDF] presents statistics, derived from the Exporter Register Database, on exporting establishments for the years 1996 to 2009. It continues to provide information on the number of Canadian exporters and the value of their domestic exports by industry (North American Industry Classification System–NAICS), exporter size, province of residence, countries of destination, and employment size (2009 only).

Noteworthy: "The number of Canadian establishments exporting to countries other than the United States rose," and "the value of exports to the United States fell to
$246.0 billion, a 29.1% decrease from its peak level in 2008 and its lowest value in more than a decade."

State Agricultural Export Data

From the Department of Agriculture - Economic Research Service

Annual estimates of U.S. exports by State and commodity group based on each State's share of U.S. agricultural production.

Import and export prices increase from April 2010 to April 2011

Over the year, overall import prices advanced 11.1 percent in April 2011. Export prices rose 9.6 percent over the past year, matching the 12-month advance in March—the largest year-over-year increase since export prices jumped 10.2 percent in July 2008.

United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database

UN COMTRADE is the pseudonym for United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database. Over 170 reporter countries provide the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) with their annual international trade statistics data detailed by commodities and partner countries. These data are subsequently transformed into the United Nations Statistics Division standard format with consistent coding and valuation using the UN/OECD CoprA internal processing system.

The UN COMTRADE is the largest depository of international trade data. It contains well over 1.7 billion data records for 45 years and is available on the internet!

All commodity values are converted from national currency into US dollars using exchange rates supplied by the reporter countries, or derived from monthly market rates and volume of trade. Quantities, when provided with the reporter country data and when possible, are converted into metric units. Commodities are reported in the current classification and revision (HS2002 in most cases) and are converted all the way down to the earliest classification SITC revision 1. Therefore, if data is received in HS 2002 version, it is converted to HS1996, HS1988, SITC rev. 3, SITC rev. 2, SITC rev. 1 and BEC. The data are permanently stored in the UN COMTRADE database server.

TradeStats Express™ - State Export Data

Export data include:
Global Patterns of a State's Exports
State-by-State Exports to a Selected Market
Export Product Profile to a Selected Market

New York: Exports, Jobs, and Foreign Investment

Report for March 2010.

*Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 3.1 percent of New York's total private-sector employment. More than one-fifth (20.9 percent) of all manufacturing workers in New York depend on exports for their jobs. (2008 data are the latest available.)

*A total of 27,329 companies exported goods from New York locations in 2007, the third highest number among the 50 states. Of those, 94 percent, or 25,657 firms, were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 500 employees.

*SMEs generated more than half (55 percent) of New York's total exports of merchandise in 2007. That is the third highest percentage among the 50 states and well above the national average of 30 percent.

*In 2007, foreign-controlled companies employed 433,600 workers in New York. This was the second largest total among the 50 states (only California was greater). Major sources of New York's foreign investment in 2007 were the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, and Switzerland.

*New York's export shipments of merchandise in 2009 totaled $57.3 billion. New York was the third largest exporter among the 50 states in 2009.

USDA Launches New Country Web Pages

From the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service

In an effort to expand information available to exporters, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has added country pages to its Web site. Grouped into four regions – Western Hemisphere, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia and Oceania – these country pages provide essential demographic, economic and political information.

The new country pages will allow users to find comprehensive links, all in one place, on import requirements for each country, as well as travel and market information, the status of trade negotiations, trade development and important contacts.

In addition, the FAS Web site includes many searchable databases providing export, import, production, supply, and distribution data, as well as export sales reports and market reports from U.S. agricultural trade experts stationed in 97 offices around the world.

U.S. Exports of Goods, Services Increased 12% in 2008

U.S. exports of goods and services grew by 12.0% in 2008 to $1.84 trillion, while imports increased 7.4% to $2.52 trillion.

In December 2008, the U.S. goods and services trade deficit ($39.9 billion) was the lowest monthly deficit since February 2003. This led to a 3.3% improvement in the annual goods and services deficit for 2008.

Exports comprised 13.1% of U.S. GDP in 2008. To put in historical terms, exports were 9.5% of U.S. GDP five years earlier (2003), and 5.3% 40 years ago (1968).

Source: International Trade Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce)

State Export Data

Annual estimates of U.S. exports by State and commodity group based on each State’s share of U.S. agricultural production.

Economic History

On a listserv I monitor, someone asked last week about historic exchange rates, and was directed to the section on the EH.net site, How Much Is That?, which includes The Value of Money; Growth Rates, GDP and Earnings; and Financial Indicators, all in time series. Useful. But what I found really interesting on the site were the databases, "an on-line location for researchers in economic history to make their data series available to other professionals and interested scholars. Several data series have been given to EH.Net and are available as downloadable files, while many other titles may be accessed through our Database Directory."
# Weekly Data on the Confederate Grayback Note Price of a Gold Dollar in Richmond and Houston
# Developing Country Export Statistics: 1840, 1860, 1880 and 1900
# Early Forward Exchange Markets: Vienna, 1876-1914
# Early U.S. Securities Prices, 1790-1860
# Global Financial Data, 1880-1913
# Greenback Series
# Historical Labor Statistics Project Series
# U.S. Customs House Data, 1854-59
# U.S. National Bank Notes, 1864-1935
# U.S. Population Series
# U.S. Public Debt Issues, 1775-1976
# Unskilled wage index, U.S.
# Weekly Data on Confederate Cotton Bond Prices in London and Junk Bond Prices in Amsterdam
# Wheat Prices in France, 1825-1913
# U.S. Agricultural Workforce,1800-1900
This latter form describes, among other things, the number of agricultural slaves, by state, in 1800-1860.
I haven't even explored the Encyclopedia and Related Sites. Good stuff.

Of course, there are inherent difficulties in comparing salaries and money back in time, as this article notes. Also, here is a link to many links about the Current Value of Old Money.