TAXAS: From refined petroleum products to Dell computers to Toyota trucks, the world wants what we have, and Texas exports set a record $289 billion in 2014, according to new figures from the Commerce Department.
That makes Texas by far the largest export state in the country, at nearly $100 billion ahead of California. If Texas were a country, we would be the 18th largest exporting nation in the world, ahead of Australia and Brazil.
“Exports are critical to economic growth and job creation in communities across the country,” Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said. “With 95% of the world’s consumers living outside the United States, opening more markets to ‘Made in America’ goods and services is fundamental to our nation’s competitiveness, job creation, and the economic security of our families.”
The state’s booming oil and gas sector in 2014 is credited with helping the state’s export economy in two ways. First of all, even though crude oil itself cannot be exported except to Canada, the Texas is exporting refined products ranging from gasoline to jet fuel all over the world. Also, the lower price of natural gas, which is the main fuel for powering manufacturing operations, has helped lead to a boom in U.S. manufacturing and the trend of ‘onshoring,’ returning manufacturing jobs to the U.S.
The leading products for export from Texas in 2014 included petroleum products ($59 billion); computer and electronic products ($46 billion) and chemicals ($46 billion).
Pritzker says an estimated 1.1 million U.S. jobs were supported by Texas’ good exports in 2013 alone.
In addition to Mexico, which remains Texas’ number one trading partner, Texas exports about $30 billion worth of products a year to the European Union, and nations in the new Trans Pacific Partnership, including Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam are expanding their imports of Texas products, the Commerce Department said.
