 U.S. Census Bureau News
U.S. Department of Commerce
Washington, D.C. 20230
                                
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8:30 A.M. EST TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2005
CB-05-40                   
                                
For information contact:                      
Emmanuel O. Omoruyi (301) 763-3251           
Glenn A. Barresse   (301) 763-3251           
                                 
U.S. GOODS TRADE: Imports & Exports by Related Parties; 2004

The U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, announced today that in 2004 related
party trade accounted for $950 billion or 42 percent of total goods trade.  Related party trade 
accounted for $698 billion or 48 percent of the total imports, and $252 billion or 31 percent of the
total exports. These percentages are consistent with historical trends and it shows an overall related
party trade increase of $123 billion from 2003.  "Related party trade"  includes trade by U.S.
companies with their subsidiaries abroad as well as trade by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies
with their parent companies.
                    

Exhibits 1 and 2 provide an overview of selected countries and world areas of related party trade
for imports and exports.  Exhibits 3, 4, 5, and 6 provide commodity information in terms of the North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS), thereby providing a link to domestic production
data.  Related party trade is concentrated in a few 3-digit NAICS codes.  In 2004, the top five 3-digit
NAICS codes (by value) accounted for approximately 73 percent of total related party imports and
62 percent of the total related party exports.  NAICS 336 (Transportation equipment) and NAICS 334
(Computer and electronic products) remained either one or two for both directions of trade.  (Refer
to Exhibits 3 and 5).  Users should note that the trade data are product based and that the trade data
do not always correspond completely to the industry based NAICS categories.

                                

Historical Section
                                
Since 1992 the overall related party share of both imports and exports has remained relatively
constant, varying only from 45 to 48 percent of imports and 31 to 32 percent of exports.  However,
some notable shifts in ratios of related party trade in goods with selected trading partners have
occurred.  Related trade percentages for imports from selected trading partners are presented in
Table 1.

Table 1.  Related Party Trade Percentages for Imports.

YEAR		1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
TOTAL TRADE	45.0	45.4	46.4	47.4	46.5	46.0	46.9
CANADA		46.0	45.2	44.6	46.0	44.8	43.6	44.1
JAPAN		75.0	75.3	75.5	75.4	72.7	70.9	73.7
MEXICO		63.3	65.3	69.2	66.1	66.5	65.4	66.3
TAIWAN		15.9	17.3	18.8	20.3	21.4	21.8	21.8
CHINA		10.5	10.5	13.3	14.6	15.2	16.2	17.7
KOREA		26.8	31.3	37.5	41.9	44.0	43.1	44.9
E. EUROPE	12.0	11.7	17.8	19.7	21.8	25.5	25.2

YEAR		1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
TOTAL TRADE	46.7	46.7	46.5	47.6	47.5	47.8
CANADA		43.1	44.0	41.5	42.4	43.3	45.5
JAPAN		73.7	74.3	73.5	76.6	79.1	78.9
MEXICO		66.4	66.1	67.5	66.7	64.2	61.1
TAIWAN		20.8	21.6	21.1	22.2	22.1	24.0
CHINA		17.6	18.1	18.1	20.5	23.0	27.1
KOREA		49.3	55.4	55.1	56.1	58.5	62.3
E. EUROPE	32.1	31.8	31.6	32.2	34.4	35.7

On the export side, related party trade with most trading partners increased from 1992 to 2004.   
Refer to Table 2.

Table 2.  Related Party Trade Percentages for Exports.


YEAR		1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
TOTAL TRADE	30.9	31.9	32.2	31.9	31.8	31.7	31.8
CANADA		45.3	44.8	44.0	44.0	44.0	43.1	41.9
JAPAN		36.2	35.3	36.9	34.6	35.6	38.2	37.6
MEXICO		38.7	44.8	43.9	47.7	45.7	46.1	45.3
TAIWAN		10.0	10.5	11.7	11.6	11.7	13.1	14.3
CHINA		 4.9	 5.8	 6.4	 4.7	 7.4	 7.3	11.1
KOREA		11.1	10.6	11.1	12.0	11.7	12.4	11.3
E. EUROPE	 9.7	 9.7	12.5	 9.5	13.6	14.2	12.8

YEAR		1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
TOTAL TRADE	32.1	31.5	30.6	31.9	32.2	30.8
CANADA		42.4	41.2	39.7	42.5	43.5	42.0
JAPAN		36.3	37.4	36.9	34.0	33.8	32.1
MEXICO		44.3	42.5	40.9	43.1	40.7	41.5
TAIWAN		16.0	14.1	16.3	19.9	18.7	16.4
CHINA		11.6	12.2	13.0	12.3	14.8	14.2
KOREA		11.4	11.4	12.9	12.7	14.1	14.2
E. EUROPE	12.3	16.1	11.6	13.5	12.6	16.3

