Texas, California reign as top U.S. exporting states

Texas’s exports reached $289 billion and California topped $174.1 billion in export value for 2014.    The U.S. Commerce Department last week released data that shows Texas and California firmly in the lead as the nation’s two top exporting states for 2014.
   Texas’s exports for the year registered at $289 billion and California topped $174.1 billion in export value. 
   The next five top exporting states included Washington ($90.6 billion), Illinois ($68.2 billion), Louisiana ($65.1 billion), Ohio ($52.1 billion), and Georgia ($39.4 billion). Commerce said a total of 26 states set export records over 2013 levels.
   Total merchandise exports from all 50 states helped the United States achieve its fifth year in a row of record-setting goods and services exports, which reached $2.35 trillion in 2014, according to the department.
   Commerce credits a number of White House initiatives that have promoted U.S. export growth in recent years, such as the National Export Initiative and the president’s “Made in Rural America” initiative.
   “Now is the time for Congress to pass bipartisan trade promotion legislation, so we can enact new trade agreements with high standards that uphold our values and protect our national security,” Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said in a statement.