U.S. Census Bureau News

U.S. Department of Commerce • Washington, D.C. 20230


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8:30 A.M. EDT TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2009


For information contact:  (301) 763-3251				CB09-61		
Emmanuel O. Omoruyi, Glenn A. Barresse  
or Kristen S. Corwin 

U.S. Goods Trade: Imports & Exports by Related-Parties
2008 

The U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, announced today that in 2008 
related-party trade accounted for almost 40 percent ($1,349 billion) of total goods trade.  
Related-party trade accounted for nearly 50 percent ($975 billion) of consumption imports and 
just under 30 percent ($374 billion) of total exports (Figure 1).  These percentages are slightly 
lower than historic U.S. figures.  In 2008, U.S. related-party trade increased by 6.7 percent 
(almost $85 billion) while total trade increased by 9.1 percent ($284 billion) from 2007.  
Related-party trade includes trade by U.S. companies with their subsidiaries abroad as well as 
trade by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies with their parent companies.
	


	Figure 1.
	 





Overview of U.S. Related-Party Trade 2008

Exhibit 1 shows a snapshot of U.S. related-party imports from selected world areas, and the top-
ten countries sorted by related-party value.  Exhibit 2 shows related-party exports from selected 
world areas and the top-ten countries also sorted by related-party value.  Exhibits 3 and 4 provide 
import and export commodity information in terms of the North America Industry Classification 
System (NAICS), thereby providing a link to domestic production data.   These exhibits show the 
top-ten three-digit NAICS codes, sorted by related-party values, for imports and exports.  A 
listing of the countries contained in the selected world area groupings can be found in the 
"Technical Documentation Section" or at http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/guide/sec5.html.

As shown in Exhibits 3 and 4, the top-ten 3-digit NAICS codes (by value) accounted for over 78 
percent of total imports and over 77 percent of total exports, with related-party trade accounting 
for over 53 percent and almost 33 percent for imports and exports respectively.  Transportation 
equipment (NAICS 336), computer and electronic products (NAICS 334), and chemicals (NAICS 
325) were the top three goods categories for both directions of trade.  Users should note that the 
trade data are product based and do not always correspond completely to the industry based 
NAICS categories.  For more information on the NAICS code, please access the Guide to Foreign 
Trade Statistics at http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/guide/sec2.html - naics.

Historical Trend

The relative share of related-party trade has remained between 39.7 and 41.9 percent of total trade 
over the last nine years (Figure 2).  Over the same time period the value of both related trade and 
total trade increased by 71.2 and 66.7 percent respectively.  In dollar terms, from 2000 to 2008, 
related-party trade increased by $540 billion and total trade increased by almost $1,415 billion.  

	Figure 2. 





Interactive Data Website for Related-Party Trade

Detailed related-party trade data from 2000 through 2008, are available online for extraction and 
analysis at: http://sasweb.ssd.census.gov/relatedparty.  The website provides output by year, 
country, and the North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes at the 2, 3, 4 or 6-
digit level.  The data can be totaled on related, nonrelated, and nonreported categories.  The 
available file formats for generated output are web based (HTML), comma separated values 
(CSV), or Adobe (PDF).  


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