Notes

Trade in goods drives the majority of US exports and imports activities. The pie charts show that trade of goods accounted for 70% of total exports while services accounted for only 30% of total exports. On the import side, 83% of imports were goods and the remaining 17% of imports were services.
Transportation equipment was the dominant export product in 2013. Other merchandise goods constituted nearly 41% of total exports. Computer and electronic products made up more than 15% of all goods imported into the United States in 2013.
The United States exports to about 230 markets around the world.
Those 230 trade partners include countries all over the world. In 2013, Canada was the top US export market ($301.6 billion), followed by Mexico ($226.1 billion), China ($121.7 billion), Japan ($65.2 billion), and Germany ($47.4 billion).
Canada is the largest US trading partner.
Canada and Mexico account for one-third of total US exports.
Generally, the share of US exports in the country's GDP has been increasing.
The majority of US trade activities involve export and import of goods.
Trade influences not only the economy of a country but also its individuals and culture. Every company aims for efficient allocation of resource through reduced production costs. One way to reduce production costs is to outsource some business activities to other businesses (both within the country and in other countries).
Companies outsource activities such as information management, accounting, web design, manufacturing, legal services, and so on to other companies that have skilled or specialized expertise in these activities. Although companies could carry out such activities in-house, the availability of cheap labor without a compromise in quality encourages outsourcing.
Like every business strategy, outsourcing has both advantages and disadvantages.
One of the major benefits of outsourcing is that it reduces costs. Workers with specialized expertise complete activities faster and more efficiently. Outsourcing also leads to a loss of domestic jobs. When a company in the United States exports its accounting to a firm in Germany, the domestic workers in the company's accounting department will lose their jobs. Moreover, the risk of exposing confidential data to a third party increases with outsourcing. A third party may lack the desired customer service focus because it handles the work of many companies simultaneously.