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    Texas Trade Facts​

    • In 2018, Texas exported a record $315.9 billion of Made-in-America goods to the world. In 2016, exports from Texas supported an estimated 910 thousand jobs.

    Exports from Texas and Jobs

    • Texas was the largest state exporter of goods in 2018.
       
    • In 2018, Texas goods exports were $315.9 billion, an increase of 64 percent ($124 billion) from its export level in 2008.
       
    • Goods exports accounted for 17.8 percent of Texas GDP in 2018.
       
    • Texas goods exports in 2016 (latest year available) supported an estimated 910 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

    Made-in-America Manufacturing Exports from Texas and Jobs

    • In 2018, Texas exported $248.1 billion of manufactured products.
       
    • Texas exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 866 thousand jobs in 2016.
       
    • The state's largest manufacturing export category is petroleum & coal products, which accounted for $56.3 billion of Texas's total goods exports in 2018.
       
    • Other top manufacturing exports are computer & electronic products ($47.9 billion), chemicals ($46.2 billion), transportation equipment ($25.1 billion), and machinery, except electrical ($22.6 billion).

    Exports Sustain Thousands of Texas Businesses many of which are SMEs

    • A total of 39,482 companies exported from Texas locations in 2016 (latest year available). Of those, 36,590 (93 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
       
    • Small and medium-sized firms generated 39.3 percent of Texas's total exports of goods in 2016.

    Texas Depends on World Markets

    • The state’s largest market was Mexico. Texas exported $109.7 billion in goods to Mexico in 2018, representing 35 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
       
    • Mexico was followed by Canada ($27.5 billion), China ($16.6 billion), Korea ($13.1 billion), and Japan ($12.1 billion).
       

    • Texas’s exports (2018 value)  to major world areas included:

     

    2018 Value

    APEC

    $214.8 billion

    Asia

    $81.8 billion

    European Union

    $39.3 billion

    South/Central America and Caribbean

    $43.4 billion

    Sub-Saharan Africa

    $3.7 billion
     

    • 58 percent of Texas’s exports ($181.9 billion) go to current FTA partners.  

    Agriculture in Texas depends on Exports

    • Texas is the country’s 4th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $7.2 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2017 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).1
       

    • Top Agricultural exports (2017 value) were:

     

    2017 Value

     2017 State Rank

    cotton

    $2.6 billion

    1

    other plant products

    $1.1 billion

    3

    beef and veal

    $952 million

    2

    dairy products

    $314 million

    5

    feed and other feed grains

    $295 million

    8
     

    International Investment Creates Jobs in Texas

    • In 2015 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 596,900 Texas workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Texas included the United Kingdom, France and Japan.
       
    • Foreign investment in Texas was responsible for 5.8 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2015.

    Texas’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

    • In 2017 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Texas recorded goods exports: Houston ($95.8 billion), Dallas ($30.3 billion), El Paso ($25.8 billion), Beaumont ($16.2 billion), Corpus Christi ($13.8 billion), Austin ($12.5 billion), Santonio ($9.2 billion), Laredo ($9.2 billion), McAllen ($5.7 billion), Amarillo ($527.8 million), Waco ($476.4 million), Lubbock ($452.4 million), Sherman ($420.6 million), Sangelo ($328.1 million), Texarkana ($267.6 million), Tyler ($234.5 million), Longview ($215.4 million), Wichita Falls ($197.8 million), Killeen ($146.3 million), College Station ($145.4 million), Odessa ($102.5 million), Midland ($69.4 million), Victoria ($69.1 million), Abilene ($45.9 million).

     

    1Estimates of state exports of agricultural products by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and goods exports by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce are based on different methodologies and are not directly comparable.