U.S. high-tech trade gap grows

U.S. high-tech trade gap grows    The United States' trade deficit in high-tech goods grew in 2006 to $102 billion from $96 billion last year, reports AeA, a trade organization formerly known as the American Electronics Association.
   The group said high-tech exports increased 10 percent from $199 billion to $220 billion, while imports rose 9 percent from $295 billion to $322 billion.
   “Not surprisingly, the largest deficit with any single country was with China, at $88 billion in 2006,' the group said. '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 and 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,” it added.
   The group’s Trade in the Cyberstates 2007 report looks at high-tech trade flows at the national level and for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
   AeA said 2006 was the fourth consecutive year of growing high-tech exports. The leading growth sectors were industrial electronics (up 16 percent) and communications equipment (up 13 percent).
   AEA said high tech was the nation’s largest export industry in 2006, comprising 21 percent of total U.S. goods exports.