The Year in Trade 2018: U.S. Global Trade Trends

by logisticsplus | Nov 1, 2019 | News

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) just released its annual “The Year in Trade” report for 2018. This detailed report features all of the global trade trends from 2018. Some of the key elements to this report are exchange rate trends, administration of U.S. trade laws, global trade agreements, new trade relations, and global economic trends, among others. Highlighted below are a few of the trade trends we saw in 2018.

Trade Activities With Major Trading Partners
The European Union as a single entity continued to be the United States’ largest trading partner in 2018. The EU member countries accounted for 6 of the top 15 U.S. trading partners. Leading U.S. exports to the EU included civilian aircraft, engines, and crude petroleum. After the EU, China remained the United States’ largest single-country trading partner, accounting for 15.7% of total U.S. merchandise trade. Leading U.S. imports from China in 2018 were cellphones, computers and tablets, and computer parts. Canada remained third on the list and accounted for 14.7% of total U.S. merchandise trade.

In 2018, Canada was the United States’ second-largest single-country trading partner after China for the fourth consecutive year. The value of U.S. two-way merchandise trade with Canada rose 6.1 percent to $617.1 billion in 2018, accounting for 14.7 percent of total U.S. merchandise trade with the world. Both U.S. merchandise exports and imports with Canada increased in 2018 from the previous year, but imports outpaced exports, resulting in a $2.6 billion increase (15.8 percent) in the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with Canada to $19.7 billion. Leading U.S. exports to Canada included crude petroleum; civilian aircraft, engines, and parts; motor vehicles—both for passengers and for goods transport—as well as their parts and accessories; and light oils. Top U.S. imports from Canada included crude petroleum; passenger motor vehicles and their parts and accessories; refined petroleum products; natural gas; and coniferous wood and products.

In 2018, Mexico was the United States’ third-largest single-country merchandise trading partner. U.S. two-way merchandise trade with Mexico amounted to $611.5 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.7 percent from 2017. Mexico accounted for 14.5 percent of U.S. trade with the world. U.S. merchandise exports to Mexico totaled $265.0 billion in 2018, and U.S. merchandise imports from Mexico amounted to $346.5 billion. Both U.S. merchandise imports and exports with Mexico increased in 2018 from the previous year. Leading U.S. exports to Mexico included light oils; refined petroleum products; computer parts and accessories; diesel engines; semiconductors; parts and accessories of bodies (including cabs) for motor vehicles; and civilian aircraft, engines, and parts. Leading U.S. imports from Mexico included passenger motor vehicles, motor vehicles for goods transport, telecommunications equipment, road tractors for semi-trailers, color TV reception apparatus, and insulated ignition wiring sets.

Global Economic Trends
Overall, the global economic growth rate fell slightly from 3.8% in 2017 to 3.6% in 2018. The slow global growth seen in 2018 is attributed to short-term uncertainty in economies due to trade tensions and financial pressures in emerging markets. The United States was the only economy to show improvement in it’s growth rate from 2017 to 2018.

U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate Trends
The U.S. dollar appreciated in comparison to other currencies, rising 5.5% between January and December 2018. The previous year, the U.S. dollar depreciated by 6.3%. The upwards trend in 2018 was driven partly by the Federal Open Market Committee’s four interest rate hikes, along with a lower than expected unemployment rate.

To read the full report, The Year in Trade 2018, published by the United States International Trade Commission, click here.

If your company has import or export needs, you should consider working with Logistics Plus. Global trade compliance management is as important as it has ever been. In the U.S. Logistics Plus more than a dozen locations that can help you with your transportation and logistics needs; and our Customs Brokerage staff can also help you clear customs for imports at any port in the United States. Additionally, Logistics Plus now has locations at 50 offices in over 20 countries. As always, you can find any of our worldwide employees in our online global directory.

U.S. Global Trade Trends from The Year in Trade 2017 Report

by logisticsplus | Aug 28, 2018 | News

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) just released its updated “The Year in Trade 2017” report. This report covers all of the global trade trends from 2017. Included in this report are exchange rate trends, trade laws and regulations, global economic trends, regional trade activity, global trade agreements, and new trade relations, among other topics. Let’s take a look at some of the most intriguing and important trade trends that occurred in 2017.

Trade Activities With Major Trading Partners

As expected, China was again named the United States largest single-country trading partner based on two-way merchandise trade in 2017. Merchandise trade with China accounts for 16.4 percent of total U.S. trades and amounts to $635.9 billion in trade. Behind China is Canada for the third consecutive year. U.S. and Canada trade rose 7 percent from the previous year and amounted to $582.4 billion in 2017. Following China and Canada is Mexico with a value of $557 billion in 2017 trade. The figure below includes the top 7 single-countries the U.S. trades with, and also the E.U. which includes all countries the U.S. trades with in Europe.

U.S. Exports and Imports

In 2017, transportation equipment was the largest U.S. export sector accounting for 21 percent of all exports. Close behind was electronics (17.3 percent), and chemical related products (14.7 percent). The top individual export product were civilian aircraft, engines, and parts, along with refined petroleum products. The biggest U.S. import in 2017 was electronic products, which totaled for 20.7 percent of U.S. imports. On an individual basis, passenger motor vehicles were the largest U.S. import valued at $186.4 billion. China was once again the leading source of U.S. imports in 2017.

Exchange Rate Trends

Overall, the U.S. dollar depreciated in 2017, falling 6.3 percent on the broad dollar index. This downward trend was mainly driven by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar compared to other major world currencies. The U.S. dollar fell by 12 percent against the euro, 9.4 percent against the pound (UK), 6.8 percent against the Canadian dollar, and 6.1 percent against the Mexican peso. Several major U.S. investment banks noted that the euro and pound were recovering from an early drop due to the uncertainty of the Brexit vote. The figure below shows the U.S. dollar exchange rate compared to other major world currencies.

U.S. GDP in 2017

The United States had a $19.4 trillion economy in 2017, and the economy grew faster in 2017 than it did in 2016. U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 2.3 percent in 2017 compared to the growth rate of 1.5 percent in 2016. The main factors driving this high growth rate were due to four industries- professional and business services; finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing; manufacturing; and retail trade.

To read the full report, The Year in Trade 2017, published by the United States International Trade Commission, click here.

If your company has import or export needs, you should consider working with Logistics Plus. In the U.S. we have more than a dozen locations that can help you with your transportation and logistics needs; and our Customs Broker Solutions staff can also help you clear customs for imports at any port in the United States. Additionally, Logistics Plus now has locations at 50 offices in 22 countries. As always, you can find any of our worldwide employees in our online global directory.