United States chemical trade surplus

Trade patterns for chemical products differ markedly from those of overall trade. Countries like China and Taiwan, for example, which have large surpluses in their overall trade accounts, have sizeable deficits in their trade in chemicals. The United States and Britain, on the other hand, have large trade deficits overall, but trade surpluses, or at least somewhat balanced trade flows in chemicals. 

The U. S. chemical industry is the world s largest producer of chemicals (American Chemical Society et al, 1996). In 1995, total shipments were valued at 367 billion, or about 24% of the worldwide market, which was valued at 1.3 trillion. Japan, Germany, and France ranked next in total production. At that time, the United States was second in chemical exports, about 60.5 billion, or 14% of the total export market. The U.S. chemical industry had the largest trade surplus ( 20.4 billion) of all U.S. industry sectors and was the... 

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