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Still, trade plays a vital role in California’s economy. The state’s seaports, airports and border crossings with Mexico are not only major conduits for America’s trade with the world, they provide employment for armies of blue-collar workers who might otherwise find themselves economically disenfranchised in an increasingly high-tech California. . . Instead of focusing on foreign travel, state leaders should be more concerned with more elemental matters – such as why it currently costs more to haul a shipping container by truck the 90 miles from Sacramento to the Port of Oakland than it does to ship that container 6,200 miles across the Pacific to Shanghai.
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The state’s merchandise exports had a total value of $13.75 billion in March, down 8.2 percent from $14.98 billion a year earlier, according to Wednesday’s report from Beacon Economics, a consulting firm with offices in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

In the first three months of 2016, Los Angeles and Long Beach took in 37% of all imports to the country arriving in containers, down from 43% during the same period in 2007.

The state’s merchandise exports had a total value of $12.13 billion in February, down nearly 3.5 percent from $12.55 billion a year earlier, according to a report from Beacon Economics, a consulting firm with offices in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

The U.S. trade deficit in February increased 2.6% from January to a seasonally adjusted $47.06 billion, its highest level since August, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Exports of goods and services rose 1%, the largest gain since September, but were down 4.2% from a year earlier. Imports climbed 1.3% in February from the prior month, their largest jump in 11 months, and edged up 0.3% from a year earlier.

The Port of Los Angeles handled 704,398 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in January 2016, an increase of 33 percent compared to January 2015. It was the busiest January in the port’s 109-year history.

The trade gap expanded 2.2% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted $45.68 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was wider than the deficit of $44.0 billion expected by economists The Wall Street Journal surveyed.

The Commerce Department said on Friday the trade gap rose 2.7 percent to $43.4 billion. November’s trade deficit was revised down to $42.2 billion from the previously reported $42.4 billion.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $43.4 billion in December, up $1.1 billion from $42.2 billion in November, revised. December exports were $181.5 billion, $0.5 billion less than November exports. December imports were $224.9 billion, up $0.6 billion from November.BR/>

The value of California merchandise exports fell 5 percent in 2015, the first annual decline since 2009.

The Port of Long Beach reported a 7% increase in imports, while neighboring Los Angeles reported a 4.5% decline from a year earlier.

The value of California’s merchandise exports in November was $12.86 billion, down 13.6 percent from $14.89 billion in November 2014 and the worst November showing since 2009, according to Beacon Economics.

The latest measure of U.S. trade flows from the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed imports and exports hitting their lowest level in years, a double whammy that hints at a domestic slowdown as well as anemic demand for U.S. products abroad.

The largest container ship ever to call at a North American port is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles on Dec.26th. French shipping line CMA-CGM launched the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin on Dec. 10. The vessel is scheduled to make her maiden call at APM Terminals-Pier 400 at the Port of Los Angeles. The ship has a capacity of nearly 18,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), which is about a third larger than the biggest container ships that currently call at the San Pedro Bay port complex.

Amid the sea of data in the report was this: California shipments to China in the August-to-October period fell by 11.4 percent, from $4.19 billion last year to $3.71 billion in 2015. Shipments declined across the board, from computer equipment to agricultural products.