California’s export trade staged an impressive recovery in July despite the adverse economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and unfavorable tariffs overseas, according to Beacon Economics’ analysis of U.S. trade statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In a month that saw overall U.S. merchandise exports decline by more than 15% from one year earlier, California businesses shipped a total of $13.487 billion in merchandise abroad in July, a nominal decline of just 0.4% from the $13.544 billion in exports the state recorded in July 2019. Shipments of manufactured products by California firms were down 5.7% to $8.386 billion from the $8.889 billion one year earlier. Similarly, exports of non-manufactured goods (chiefly the state’s agricultural products and raw materials) were off by 5.1% to $1.474 billion from $1.554 billion. Fortunately, the state’s export numbers were buoyed by a 17.0% jump in re-exports, to $3.627 billion from $3.101 billion.