Statement from U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on November Trade Numbers

Submitted on January 13, 2011 - 10:45am
Categories:
Printer-friendly version

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 13, 2011
CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
202-482-4883

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke issued the following statement today on the release of the November 2010 U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services report by the Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Today’s report showed that U.S. exports of goods and services in November increased 0.8 percent from October to $159.6 billion, the highest level for monthly exports since August 2008 ($162.9 billion) and with record exports to China ($9.5 billion).  U.S. imports of goods and services increased 0.6 percent over this period to $198.0 billion, decreasing the trade deficit 0.3 percent since October to $38.3 billion in November.  The improvement in the goods and services trade balance was due to a record monthly surplus in trade in services ($12.9 billion).

“We have now seen a full year of private sector job growth, as well as GDP gains in each of the last five quarters. As American businesses design, produce and build more, the President’s National Export Initiative is designed to help connect them with the 95 percent of the world's consumers who live outside our borders, double American exports by 2015, and build on the economic momentum of the last year.

“In fact, today's data show that through November, U.S. exports of goods and services in 2010 surged almost 17 percent from their level in 2009, an increase of $239 billion."

In the coming days, Locke will meet with China’s President Hu Jintao during his state visit to Washington, D.C. In February, Locke will lead a high-technology business development trade mission to India to advance the President’s trade agenda

“In the years ahead, there are going to be hundreds of millions of people in India, in China and around the world moving into the middle class, and that represents an enormous opportunity for U.S. businesses. President Obama’s National Export Initiative is the right policy to help them seize that opportunity.”  Report |  Fact sheet (PDF)