U.S. high-tech goods exports increased by 10 percent from $199 billion to $220 billion, while imports rose by 9 percent from $295 billion to $322 billion between 2005 and 2006, according to AeA's first edition of Trade in the Cyberstates 2007, a study that looks at high-tech trade flows at the national level and for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Trade in the Cyberstates 2007 shows that 2006 was the fourth consecutive year of growing high-tech exports, with increases in all eight industry sectors. The leading growth sectors were industrial electronics (+16%) and communications equipment (+13%). High tech was the nation's largest export industry in 2006, comprising 21 percent of total U.S. goods exports.

In 2006, the United States had an overall trade deficit in high-tech goods of $102 billion. Not surprisingly, the largest deficit with any single country was with China, at $88 billion in 2006. We are not able to discern from the data what percentage of tech imports from China are intra-company transfers from U.S. production facilities abroad that use American technology and know-how along with inputs from other countries to produce goods shipped back to the United States. The largest high-tech trade surplus for the United States, also not surprising, was with Canada at $18 billion, followed by the European Union at $13 billion in 2006.

"Trade is increasingly important for U.S. high-technology companies," said Matthew Kazmierczak, Vice President, Research and Industry Analysis, AeA. "The world is both their marketplace and their supply chain. This year, for the first time, we have published the tech trade data in this separate report in order to offer a more detailed and comprehensive picture of trade flows. This has allowed us to illustrate how important trade is both at the national and state levels. Trade keeps American business competitive, it serves customers around the world, and it supports American jobs - an often overlooked fact. High-tech exports support 684,000 domestic jobs, according to an estimate derived from the U.S. Department of the Census."

High-tech was the second largest industry import, just behind energy products. The largest high tech-import sectors in 2006 were computers and peripheral equipment ($108.1 billion), communications equipment ($68.9 billion), and consumer electronics ($47.9 billion). Thirty-eight cyberstates saw tech export growth between 2005 and 2006. The largest growth was in Texas, California, Oregon, Arizona, and Florida, as measured by dollar increase. California was the leading high-tech export state with $51.8 billion in exports in 2006, followed by Texas with $38.6 billion.

Florida, Massachusetts, and New York rounded out the top five. The largest decrease in tech exports occurred in Vermont, declining by $533 million in 2006. The largest percentage increase in tech exports among the top ten exporting states occurred in Oregon, which grew by 41.2 percent in 2006.

The largest overseas markets for U.S. high-tech exports in 2006 were the European Union ($46.1 billion), Canada ($30.1 billion), Mexico ($29.6 billion), China ($14.1 billion), Japan ($13.9 billion), and South Korea ($10.6 billion). On the other side of the trade picture, the United States imported the most high-tech products from China ($102.5 billion), Mexico ($44.7 billion), the European Union ($33.4 billion), Japan ($31.0 billion), and Malaysia ($29.4 billion).

The fastest growing large export markets ($1 billion or more) for U.S. tech exports between 2005 and 2006 were the United Arab Emirates (+49%), China (+42%), Sweden (+36%), Venezuela (+34%), and Costa Rica (+21%).