Computer Chips Are No. 6-Ranked U.S. Export — But Are They Really?

Computer chips are the No. 6-ranked U.S. export — at first glance anyway.

At first glance, it even appears the United States has a trade surplus when it comes to the computer chips, which were at the center of the supply-chain crunch during the height of the pandemic and are now at the center of President Biden’s escalating spat with China. As an import rather than an export, computer chips rank No. 10.

Also at first glance, it appears that Mexico is the No. 1 buyer of U.S. computer chips.

But, there’s more to the story.

The story is a little more interesting when you strip out those computer chips that are actually manufactured outside the United States, imported and then exported.

Computer chips no longer rank No. 6, there is no longer a computer-chip trade surplus, and Mexico no longer ranks first. China does.

This post is the eighth in a series of columns about the nation’s exports.

It follows similar series I did for the countries that were, at the time, the nation’s top 10 trade partners and one for the airports, seaports and border crossings that were, at the time, the nation’s top 10 “ports.”

The first article in this series focused on an overview of the top 10 exports. The second looked at the top 10 countries that are markets for U.S. exports and how they differ from our overall trade partners, which would include imports.

The third was about refined petroleum, the top export; followed by one on oil, which ranks second; natural gas, which includes LNG and ranks third; the primary commercial jet category, which ranks fourth; and passenger vehicles, at No. 5.

The ninth through 12th articles will look at No. 7 plasma and vaccines, No. 8 motor vehicle parts, No. 9 medicines in pill form, and No. 10 medical instruments.

Back to computer chips.

For the first time, more than half the value of U.S. computer chip “exports” this year were actually imported — in other words, manufactured outside the United States — and then “re-exported,” according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. The national average is just 15.33% through August.

While it makes sense from an accounting, or perhaps accountability, point of view — the foreign-manufactured computer chips did, in fact, leave the country — the $34.39 billion in computer chip “exports” this year would tumble $17.94 billion to rank not No. 6 but No. 16, with a value between that of soybeans and corn, without those re-exports.

The $5.54 billion trade surplus would vanish as well.

In fact, among more than 1,200 different export categories at the four-digit level in the harmonized tariff code system, computer chips rank No. 1 for the greatest value of so-called “foreign exports,” as they are called.

Even those that are not counted as foreign exports would include computer chips that are imported, including into a foreign trade zone, and then altered or enhanced before being exported. Those are called “domestic exports,” what many people would think an export really is.

So, where are all those re-exported computer chips and “domestic” computer chips going? Largely, Mexico, to feed the automotive sector and other manufactured goods such as refrigerators, computer monitors, cell phones and related equipment, hard drives and TVs.

But take away those “re-exports” and Mexico is no longer No. 1, as mentioned above. That would be China, the country at the center of the spat with President Biden.

Through August, the top five buyers of “domestic” computer chips are China, at $4.38 billion of the $16.45 billion total, followed by Taiwan at $2.62 billion, Malaysia at $2.06 billion and South Korea at $1.04 billion. Alas, Mexico is fifth, at $996.88 million.