US high-tech trade deficit improves, still long way to go

Well it might not be time to break out the bubbly just yet but US high-tech exports totaled $223 billion in 2008, up one percent from $220 billion in 2007 continuing a trend that has seen tech exports rise 38% since 2002. The number represents the single largest export sector in the country, accounting for 17% of the total US exports. NetworkWorld Extra: Seven future car technologies your tax dollars are paying for Ethernet everywhere! These were some of the more telling results from the third annual Trade in the Cyberstates report by the TechAmerica trade association which also stated that US high-tech exports support 1,157,800 domestic jobs.

The US high-tech trade deficit stood at $114 billion in 2008. This amount down by $3 billion from 2007, representing the first time since 2001 the high-tech balance of trade has improved. And what were we exporting most? Still, the deficit has more than doubled since 2002, when it was $56 billion, the group stated. Well the study said photonics represented just over 12% of the exports followed by electromedical equipment at 10.2%, communications equipment at 8.3% and electronic components at 1.1%. Semiconductor manufacturing remained the largest component of high-tech exports in 2008, accounting for $59 billion worth of exports, despite declining $1.6 billion from 2007, the largest drop of all the areas. The largest gain was in the export of communications equipment, which increased by $2.5 billion from 2007 to 2008. On the other side of the coin, the largest high-tech import sectors in 2008 were computers and peripheral equipment at $95.3 billion, communications equipment at $80.4 billion, and consumer electronics $51.8 billion.

The study found that high-tech exports decreased in four areas - computers and peripheral equipment, consumer electronics, semiconductors, and industrial electronics - and increased in four areas - communications equipment, electronic components, electromedical equipment, and photonics. The leading destinations for US high-tech exports in 2008 were, in order of magnitude: Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and South Korea. The report is a partner to TechAmerica Foundation's annual flagship publications, Cyberstates and Cybercities, which examine the high-tech industry in the national, state, and metropolitan arenas. The US held a high-tech merchandise deficit with all of these countries except Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore.