California’s export trade recorded a strong 5.3% annual gain in the latest numbers, causing the state's share of the nation's export trade to shoot up to 9.3%. Equally remarkable was that exports from Texas fell 6.9% year-over-year while overseas shipments from Florida declined by 4.2%. U.S. exports overall slipped by 0.7%.
Whether California's foreign trade continues on this growth path remains to be seen. Editorial writers and economic affairs pundits in both the United States and abroad have lately achieved a rare degree of unanimity in warning that the new tariffs President-Elect Donald Trump has promised to impose on nearly all U.S. imports from almost every source will be harmful both to international trade and to America’s own economic interests.
