The Trans-Pacific Partnership Would Expand Market Access
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) offers tremendous opportunities for U.S. exporters. TPP members comprise a population of roughly 800 million and these dynamic economies generate nearly 40 percent of global GDP. The United States already has strong trade and investment ties to this region; we exported $697.8 billion in goods to all TPP markets in 2013, or about 44 percent of total U.S. exports, and are seeking through TPP to further deepen our economic relations.
Illinois Depends on World Markets
Illinois’s export shipments of merchandise in 2013 totaled $63.1 billion. Illinois exported $36 billion annually in goods to all TPP markets (2011-2013 average). During this period, 55 percent of Illinois’s total goods exports went to the TPP region. The top three product categories exported to TPP-member economies in 2013 were machinery manufactures, petroleum and coal products, and transportation equipment.
Goods Exports Support Jobs for Illinois Workers: Jobs supported by Illinois’s goods exports were about 378,000 in 2011 (latest available data) according to a USTR estimate based on U.S. Department of Commerce data. In 2011 (latest available data), over one-quarter of all manufacturing workers in Illinois depended on exports for their jobs. Additional jobs also are supported by Illinois’s exports of services, although there are no available data on this.
Goods Exports Sustain Thousands of Illinois Businesses: A total of 23,060 companies exported goods from Illinois in 2012 (latest available data). Of those, 20,752 (90.0 percent) were small- and medium-sized enterprises, with fewer than 500 employees.
Illinois Small and Medium-Sized Firms Will Benefit From Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA Provisions
Small- and medium-sized firms generated nearly one-quarter or 23.1 percent of Illinois’s total exports of merchandise in 2012 (latest available data). Small- and medium-sized firms benefit from the tariff-elimination provisions of free trade agreements, as well as many of the other commitments in the agreement. Trade facilitation, for example, is vital to small- and medium-sized firms, as is enforcement of their intellectual property rights, streamlining of regulatory issues, and other commitments.
Note: The Asia Pacific Region is defined as APEC countries; TPP partner countries are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Sources: U.S. Department of Commerce; U.S. Trade Representative.
