Ambassador Kirk is in South Carolina today to visit Clemson University and to meet with leaders in the Carolinas' textile industry. While in Clemson, Ambassador Kirk will meet with professors and students at Clemson University and tour the Clemson University Advanced Materials Research Center. After the tour, Ambassador Kirk will head to Anderson, South Carolina to meet with executives and workers and tour the Glen Raven Textile Plant, where he will see Glen Raven's innovative textile products and discuss the President's new National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double American exports in five years and support two million American jobs.
Last year, South Carolina export-sector workers helped produce $3.4 billion worth of goods for shipment to Germany, South Carolina's top export destination. In total, Germany accounts for 20 percent of all South Carolina exports, followed by Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and China.
South Carolina's leading manufacturing export is transportation equipment, which accounted for $5 billion in 2009. Other top exports included machinery manufactures, worth $3.2 billion, and chemicals, worth $2 billion - all of them made by South Carolina workers, helping to sustain and create good-paying jobs even in the middle of an economic crisis.
For more on South Carolina businesses that export, read the current "Weekly Trade Spotlight" here on USTR.gov. Keep checking the USTR blog for more information on Ambassador Kirk's trip.
