U.S. agricultural exports support output, employment, income, and purchasing power in both the farm and nonfarm sectors. Despite a reduction in U.S. agricultural exports to China, total U.S. agricultural exports (to all countries) rose by 1.0 percent to $139.6 billion in calendar year 2018. ERS estimates that in 2018 each dollar of agricultural exports stimulated another $1.17 in business activity. Thus, the $139.6 billion of agricultural exports in 2018 produced an additional $162.9 billion in economic activity, for a total economic output of $302.5 billion. Every $1 billion of U.S. agricultural exports in 2018 required approximately 7,500 full-time, civilian jobs throughout the economy. Agricultural exports in 2018 required 1,048,000 such jobs, including 691,000 jobs in the nonfarm sector. Throughout this webpage, the word “jobs” is used to refer to full-time, civilian jobs.
Introduction
Trade has always been important to U.S. farm and rural economies, from early colonial days when tobacco and cotton were the most important export commodities to today’s diverse range of exports across multiple product categories, with grains, oilseeds, and animal products among the most prominent. Even though farming today accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), U.S. agricultural trade still contributes to U.S. economic activity in sectors other than farming, with impacts felt worldwide. Trade agreements, in tandem with increased productivity and higher incomes, have expanded agricultural trade with developed and developing countries and, in turn, have created growth opportunities for U.S. agriculture. Trade agreements that lower trade barriers to agricultural trade potentially create demand for U.S. agricultural commodities in foreign markets. This demand would be satisfied with purchasing power partly acquired by the ability of foreign nations to increase sales of other products to the U.S. market.
In 2018, the U.S. dollar depreciated by 1.8 percent in real terms—weighted by U.S. agricultural exports—relative to the currencies of its trading partners, making U.S. products somewhat more competitive in foreign markets. At the same time, however, slower growth in world real GDP constrained foreign demand for U.S. agricultural exports. World real GDP growth in 2018 was an estimated 2.93 percent, slightly below the the 3.09 percent expansion achieved in 2017. Economic growth rates in Asia, the Middle East, European Union (EU-28, which includes the United Kingdom, which exited the EU in January 2020), Mexico, and Canada were all lower than in 2017.
The United States trades with numerous countries across the globe, but its agricultural trade is concentrated among a handful of countries. On the export side, 60 percent of U.S. agricultural exports in 2018 were destined for six trade partners: Canada, Mexico, the EU-28, Japan, China, and South Korea. In this ranking, China dropped from second to fifth place between 2017 and 2018, largely due to trade restrictions, including a general effort on the part of China to seek out suppliers other than the United States and the retaliatory tariffs imposed by China on selected U.S. agricultural
