US Trade Deficit 2022: Imports, Exports Of Goods & Services, By Product Category & Country

Ugliest-ever trade deficit. But US exports grew to $2 trillion, 10% was crude oil & petroleum products. Pharma & industrial machinery exports were #3 and #4.

The US trade deficit in goods and services in 2022 ballooned by 12% to an all-time magnificent breath-taking record of $948 billion, according to data by the Commerce Department.

A trade deficit is not a sign of a vibrant economy. Instead, it’s a negative for GDP, a negative for US jobs, and a negative for the overall economy. It exists because Corporate America went in search of cheap labor and products to fatten up its profit margins.

Services trade surplus declines fourth year in a row.

The US trade surplus in services dipped further in 2022, from the already beaten down levels of 2021, to $244 billion, the lowest since 2012, and the fourth year in a row of declines.

Imports of services jumped by 24% to a record $680 billion. Exports of services jumped by 16% to $924 billion.

Spending for international travel is part of the trade in services. When Americans travel overseas and spend their money overseas, it counts as imports of services. Conversely, it counts as exports of services when foreign tourists, foreign students, etc. spend their foreign-earned money in the US. Think of it in terms of money-flows: when tourist spend their money in the US, money flows from overseas to the US, as it does with other exports.

International travel has been thrown out of whack during the pandemic. By 2022, most of the travel restrictions were lifted or at least loosened, and travel in both directions has rebounded. We’ll get to the details in a moment.

The services surplus of $244 billion (green) was dwarfed by the trade deficit in goods, which worsened by 12%, to $1.19 trillion, by far the worst ever (red). We’ll get to the ugly details of goods in a moment.

Services exports by major category:

The top four categories account for 73% of services exports. Travel (#3) jumped by 91% year-over-year, as travel restrictions were lifted. This is spending by foreign travelers in the US, and includes travel for personal, health-related, and educational purposes; business travel; and for seasonal/short-term work.

The #4 category, Charges for the Use of Intellectual Property, accounts for software, movies, music, licensing agreements, etc.

In billion $	2020	2021	2022	YoY %
Total Services, exports	726	795	924	16%
Other Business Services	195	217	244	12%
Financial Services	151	172	166	-3%
Travel, foreign travelers in the US	72	70	134	91%
Charges for the Use of Intellectual Property	116	125	127	2%
Transport	57	66	90	37%
Telecommunications, Computer, and Information Services	56	60	69	16%
Government Goods and Services	22	23	30	28%
Personal, Cultural, and Recreational Services	21	24	26	11%
Insurance Services	20	23	21	-6%
Maintenance and Repair Services	13	13	14	14%

Services imports by major category:

Travel as imports of services – Americans spending money overseas – doubled year-over-year and tripled from 2020 as travel restrictions were lifted and “revenge travel” set in.

In billion $	2020	2021	2022	YoY %
Total Services, imports	467	550	680	24%
Transport	73	105	154	47%
Other Business Services	113	130	138	7%
Travel (Americans overseas)	34	57	113	99%
Insurance Services	58	59	57	-4%
Financial Services	45	50	54	8%
Charges for the Use of Intellectual Property	48	43	52	20%
Telecommunications, Computer, and Information Services	40	43	47	10%
Personal, Cultural, and Recreational Services	24	28	29	3%
Government Goods and Services	25	25	25	1%
Maintenance and Repair Services	6	8	8	6%

Trade deficit in goods blows out.

The trade deficit in goods worsened by 9% to a mind-bending record of $1.19 trillion.

Exports of goods jumped by $324 billion, or by 18%, to $2.09 trillion.

Crude oil and petroleum products reign. Of the total exports of goods, $208 billion, or 10%, were crude oil (up 69% from a year ago) and petroleum products, such as gasoline (up 42%). Price increases were in part responsible for this huge surge.

Pharma products were #3, at $90 billion.

The largest agricultural category by value is soybeans (up 25% year-over-year), at $36 billion, in 18th place, accounting for 1.7% by value of US exports.

Here are the 54 largest categories with an export value of at least $10 billion. Have a good look. There’s some fascinating stuff in it:

	Exports by category, in billion $	2021	2022	% YoY
1	Crude oil	69	117	69%
2	Other petroleum products	64	91	42%
3	Pharmaceutical preparations	83	90	8%
4	Other industrial machinery	68	74	8%
5	Semiconductors	66	66	0%
6	Natural gas	40	63	57%
7	Fuel oil	32	60	88%
8	Passenger cars, new and used	54	57	5%
9	Other automotive parts and accessories	47	54	15%
10	Plastic materials	44	50	14%
11	Electric apparatus	43	49	14%
12	Civilian aircraft engines	38	45	19%
13	Medical equipment	40	43	8%
14	Other chemicals	39	42	7%
15	Nonmonetary gold	31	40	30%
16	Organic chemicals	34	40	17%
17	Natural gas liquids	31	38	22%
18	Soybeans	29	36	25%
19	Telecommunications equipment	33	35	6%
20	Other industrial supplies	30	32	9%
21	Cell phones and other household goods	30	32	5%
22	Computer accessories	29	32	8%
23	Civilian aircraft	24	29	20%
24	Measuring, testing, control instruments	24	28	15%
25	Industrial engines	23	27	15%
26	Meat, poultry, etc.	25	27	6%
27	Finished metal shapes	22	25	14%
28	Trucks, buses, and special purpose vehicles	21	24	14%
29	Gem diamonds	17	21	24%
30	Civilian aircraft parts	18	20	12%
31	Engines and engine parts	19	20	8%
32	Corn	20	20	0%
33	Precious metals, other	25	19	-25%
34	Computers	18	18	4%
35	Other foods	18	18	1%
36	Fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides	10	15	55%
37	Newsprint	13	15	10%
38	Toiletries and cosmetics	13	14	8%
39	Laboratory testing instruments	13	14	3%
40	Generators, accessories	12	14	10%
41	Metallurgical grade coal	7	13	80%
42	Inorganic chemicals	11	13	22%
43	Materials handling equipment	12	13	9%
44	Animal feeds	11	12	14%
45	Toys, games, and sporting goods	11	12	13%
46	Excavating machinery	11	12	14%
47	Iron and steel mill products	10	12	21%
48	Jewelry	9	12	28%
49	Coal and fuels, other	7	12	59%
50	Artwork and other collectibles	9	11	27%
51	Pulpwood and woodpulp	10	11	13%
52	Photo, service industry machinery	9	10	14%
53	Steelmaking materials	10	10	-1%
54	Aluminum and alumina	8	10	22%

Imports of goods spiked by $425 billion, or by 15%, to $3.28 trillion. This caused some heartache when those global supply chains got tangled up, triggering all kinds of shortages, but the search of cheap labor and products rule the day.

Of the total imports of goods, crude oil was #1 by value at $198 billion, up 49% year-over-year thanks to the price increases. Pharma products were #2, at $190 billion. Passenger cars were #3.

Note the imports of tech equipment, categories #5 through #10.

	Imports by Category, in billion $	2021	2022	YoY
1	Crude oil	133	198	49%
2	Pharmaceutical preparations	171	190	11%
3	Passenger cars	143	162	13%
4	Other automotive parts and accessories	116	135	16%
5	Cell phones and other household goods	121	132	9%
6	Computers	100	103	3%
7	Electric apparatus	69	89	29%
8	Telecommunications equipment	66	79	19%
9	Semiconductors	70	78	12%
10	Computer accessories	70	78	12%
11	Other industrial machinery	66	76	16%
12	Other textile apparel and household goods	55	64	15%
13	Toys, games, and sporting goods	57	60	5%
14	Medical equipment	59	57	-4%
15	Cotton apparel and household goods	46	54	16%
16	Other petroleum products	40	53	31%
17	Trucks, buses, and special purpose vehicles	43	52	21%
18	Furniture, household goods, etc.	48	51	6%
19	Industrial supplies, other	43	49	14%
20	Finished metal shapes	35	48	38%
21	Household appliances	41	42	2%
22	Organic chemicals	34	39	14%
23	Generators, accessories	30	37	22%
24	Fuel oil	28	36	30%
25	Engines and engine parts	30	32	8%
26	Industrial engines	28	31	11%
27	Iron and steel mill products	26	30	14%
28	Fish and shellfish	28	30	6%
29	Photo, service industry machinery	27	30	8%
30	Other foods	23	27	17%
31	Fruits, frozen juices	24	27	15%
32	Materials handling equipment	22	27	21%
33	Plastic materials	24	27	10%
34	Measuring, testing, control instruments	23	25	11%
35	Footwear	20	25	28%
36	Bauxite and aluminum	18	24	35%
37	Other chemicals	19	24	24%
38	Gem diamonds	20	23	17%
39	Fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides	16	22	38%
40	Other precious metals	29	22	-24%
41	Televisions and video equipment	25	21	-13%
42	Other consumer nondurables	19	21	16%
43	Civilian aircraft engines	17	21	25%
44	Excavating machinery	15	21	37%
45	Jewelry	21	20	-1%
46	Shingles, wallboard	17	19	11%
47	Vegetables	17	19	11%
48	Agricultural machinery, equipment	15	19	25%
49	Camping apparel and gear	14	19	37%
50	Bakery products	15	18	21%
51	Natural gas	10	18	71%
52	Automotive tires and tubes	14	17	21%
53	Toiletries and cosmetics	15	17	14%
54	Meat products	15	17	8%
55	Iron and steel, advanced	13	16	25%

The Goods Trade Deficit, by Country.

Below are the 15 countries with which the US has the largest goods trade deficits. The opaque nature of international trade, such as trans-shipments through third countries, trade invoicing via third countries, etc., produces special effects, such as Ireland, which actually doesn’t export much to the US, but in which many huge US companies have entities – often just mailbox entities – through which winds the paper trail of their imports for all kinds of reasons. Vietnam has become a major transshipment center for China’s exports to the US to dodge US tariffs.

Driver behind gigantic imports of goods: Corporate America.

We cannot blame those countries. The driver of those imports and the gigantic trade deficit is the search of cheap labor and cheap products by Corporate America. The motivation: boosting profit margins. And under the doctrine of globalization, US policies have encouraged rather than discouraged Corporate America to globalize production for over 30 years. So here we are.

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Editor’s Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.