NOVEMBER 2015

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

CAPITOL RESEARCH
FISCAL & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY

State Overseas Trade Offices, 2015

State-supported export promotion and foreign
direct investments are now a key ingredient to state
economic development strategies as state leaders
recognize the importance of global markets in the
creation of domestic jobs. States support international trade and investment by maintaining or
contracting for overseas international trade offices
that promote the states trade interests and facilitate
trade and investment with potential international
partners.1

The number of state overseas trade offices

has fluctuated over the years.
States began establishing overseas trade offices
on a large scale in the 1980s and 1990s, although
it is believed New York established the first state
overseas trade office in 1954, when it opened an
office in Europe.2
As of May 2015, 40 states maintained or contracted
for overseas international trade offices.3
States maintain as few as one and up to 17 offices
overseas, with a median number of four offices.
Pennsylvania operates the most overseas
offices17followed by Florida with 14 offices
and Missouri with 12 offices.
Seven states maintain one office overseas and eight
states maintain two offices.

States currently maintain at least 199

overseas trade offices in 30 countries.
The number of overseas offices is down from an
estimated 228 offices that were in operation in
2002, although the number of states operating
offices has remained approximately the same.4
The number of overseas offices has increased from
levels in 2013 when states operated 177 offices.
Twenty-seven states maintain an overseas trade
office in China, the most of any country. Mexico
comes in second place, with 24 states, and Japan
comes in third with 20 states.
Ten countries have only one state office operating
within their borders.
Ten statesMassachusetts, Maine, New HampThe Council of State Governments

shire, Nevada, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South

Dakota, Virginia, Vermont and Wyomingdid not
operate overseas offices in 2015.

Exports play an increasingly important

role in the economic health and stability of
states.
The value of total goods and services exported in
2014 reached a record $2.3 trillion5 and supported
11.7 million jobs nationally, up 1.8 million since
2009.6
From 2009 to 2014, jobs supported by goods
exports from Texas, Washington, California, Louisiana and Michigan supported more than 50 percent
of the total change in jobs from 2009 to 2014.
In 2014, goods exports from the states of Texas,
California, Washington, Illinois and New York
supported 42 percent or around 3 million of all
U.S. jobs7 supported by the export of goods, while
manufactured exports from the same five states
supported 2.6 million U.S. jobs.

2015 STATE OVERSEAS TRADE OFFICES AND EXPORTS

State Overseas Offices 20151
Location
Overseas

Number of
Countries
Represented

Total Value

United States

N.A.

N.A.

Alabama

Yes

Alaska

Yes

Arizona

Exports Per
Capita

2014

Change from
2009-2014

$1,620,531,899,958

$5,082

7,123,110

16%

$19,439,656,976

$4,009

95,258

21%

$5,110,729,449

$6,937

39,540

32%

Yes

$21,247,546,752

$3,156

93,354

17%

Arkansas

Yes

$6,860,016,662

$2,313

50,490

2%

California

Yes

$173,811,625,400

$4,479

775,320

12%

Colorado

Yes

10

$8,337,260,753

$1,557

43,615

18%

Connecticut

Yes

$15,930,667,663

$4,429

75,292

-4%

Delaware

Yes

$5,266,627,084

$5,629

23,278

0%

Florida

Yes

14

$58,506,528,733

$2,941

270,473

-9%

Georgia

Yes

11

$39,376,825,754

$3,900

209,071

36%

Hawaii

Yes

$1,447,123,737

$1,019

6,198

66%

Idaho

Yes

$5,137,445,142

$3,143

26,017

15%

Illinois

Yes

10

$68,246,837,088

$5,298

345,050

19%

Indiana

Yes

$35,467,036,651

$5,376

187,309

19%

Iowa

Yes

$15,092,200,558

$4,857

107,366

6%

Kansas

Yes

$12,045,822,292

$4,148

70,889

-1%

Kentucky

Yes

$27,650,690,098

$6,265

137,138

25%

Louisiana

Yes

$64,813,659,468

$13,939

170,200

66%

Maine

No

$2,711,573,626

$2,039

17,120

6%

Maryland

Yes

$12,233,389,310

$2,047

59,650

7%

Massachusetts

No

$27,382,732,078

$4,059

124,016

-7%

Michigan

Yes

$55,928,500,991

$5,644

270,927

30%

Minnesota

Yes

$21,408,254,499

$3,923

128,863

7%

Mississippi

Yes

$11,450,139,890

$3,824

51,892

29%

Missouri

Yes

12

$14,140,665,981

$2,332

86,602

11%

Montana

Yes

$1,545,427,741

$1,510

13,319

28%

Nebraska

Yes

$7,863,497,581

$4,179

62,214

11%

Nevada

No

$7,691,517,557

$2,709

30,319

7%

New Hampshire

No

$4,226,842,551

$3,186

20,048

9%

New Jersey

Yes

$36,616,205,166

$4,097

165,695

5%

New Mexico

Yes

$3,800,450,987

$1,822

16,546

107%

New York

Yes

$88,433,809,412

$4,479

389,957

8%

North Carolina

Yes

$31,376,674,756

$3,155

164,023

15%

North Dakota

Yes

$5,492,795,154

$7,428

32,332

16%

Ohio

Yes

$52,240,104,252

$4,506

263,356

14%

Oklahoma

Yes

$6,308,690,348

$1,627

36,401

16%

Oregon

Yes

$20,889,449,679

$5,262

86,157

16%

Pennsylvania

Yes

17

$40,354,943,154

$3,156

191,779

13%

Rhode Island

No

$2,388,748,799

$2,264

13,459

19%

South Carolina

No

$29,624,187,799

$6,130

153,816

38%

South Dakota

No

$1,593,697,270

$1,868

24,407

1%

Tennessee

Yes

$32,940,171,718

$5,030

158,913

28%

Texas

Yes

$288,048,985,741

$10,686

1,117,318

29%

Utah

Yes

$12,305,529,420

$4,181

50,578

-3%

Vermont

No

$3,669,277,804

$5,856

14,728

-10%

Virginia

No

$19,255,244,148

$2,313

90,788

4%

Washington

Yes

$90,547,036,334

$12,823

390,690

38%

West Virginia

Yes

$7,486,181,404

$4,046

35,822

35%

Wisconsin

Yes

$23,428,059,266

$4,069

124,913

12%

Wyoming

No

$1,757,198,477

$3,008

6,489

32%

State

Number of Jobs Supported

by Goods Exports3

2014 Exports2

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

 New Mexicos jobs supported by exports grew

the fastest of any state from 2009 to 2014 (107
percent), followed by Arkansas and Hawaii (66
percent) and South Carolina and Washington (38
percent).8
Of those six states that saw drops in jobs supported
by exports from 2009 to 2014, Vermont fell the
mostby 10 percentfollowed by Florida at 9
percent and Massachusetts at 7 percent.9
Merchandise exports per capita ranged considerably by state in 2014, from a low of $1,019 in
Hawaii and $1,510 in Montana to a high of $12,823
in Washington and $13,939 in Louisiana. For the
U.S., exports per capita were $5,082.10
Canada remains the top trade partner for the
U.S.representing 15.6 percent of total trade
(imports + exports)followed by China (15.2 percent), Mexico (14.1 percent), Japan (5.3 percent)
and Germany (4.6 percent).11

Jennifer Burnett, Director, Fiscal & Economic Development Policy,

jburnett@csg.org

REFERENCES
1
Unless otherwise noted, state overseas trade office location data comes from the State International
Development Organizations 2015 survey of state international trade directors. The survey defines
an overseas office as an office whose purpose is to promote and facilitate international trade and/
or investment between and among foreign parties and private or public interests within the state
represented. The office must have a physical presence located in a foreign country that is funded at least
partially by the state government represented. The office may serve the interests of the state government represented part- or full-time and several states may share the same office location.
2
Blase, Julie. 2003. Has Globalization Changed U.S. Federalism? The Increasing Role of U.S. State in
Foreign Affairs: Texas-Mexico Relations, PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2003/blasejm039/blasejm039.pdf
3
Among those 40 states maintaining overseas offices.
4
Cassey, Andrew. 2009. The Location of U.S. States Overseas Office, Working Paper, Washington State
University. http://cgu.edu/PDFFiles/SPE/Behavior%20Econ%20Seminars/2012/overseas_offices.pdf
5
U.S. Census Bureau. 2014. Annual Trade Highlights.
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/annual.html

TABLE REFERENCES
The Council of State Governments Survey of State International Trade Offices, May 2015
2
Authors Calcluations using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division,
http://tse.export.gov/TSE/TSEhome.aspx, Exports of NAICS Total All Merchandise
3
Rasmussen, Chris and Johnson, Martin. 2015. Jobs Supported by Exports 2014: An Update, Office of
Trade and Economic Analysis, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
goo.gl/IDdNLT
1

Rasmussen, Chris and Johnson, Martin. 2015. Jobs Supported by Exports 2014: An Update, Office of
Trade and Economic Analysis, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
goo.gl/dJ8mN0
7
Hall, Jeffrey and Rasmussen, Chris. 2015. Jobs Supported by State Exports 2014, Office of Trade and
Economic Analysis, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. goo.gl/F7s5MZ
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
10
U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division. 2014. Exports of NAICS Total All Merchandise,
http://tse.export.gov/TSE/TSEhome.aspx.
11
U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Data, Year-to-Date as of July, 2015.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/top/top1507yr.html
6

Alaska

Yes

Alabama

Yes

Arkansas

Yes

Arizona

Yes

California

Yes

Colorado

Yes

Connecticut

Yes

*
*

Georgia

Yes

Hawaii

Yes

Iowa

Yes

Yes
Yes

Kentucky

Yes

UK

Ukraine

UAE

Taiwan

Spain

Switzerland

South Korea

South Africa

Singapore

Nigeria

Saudi Arabia

Mexico

Netherlands

Japan

Israel

Indonesia

India

Hong Kong

France

Germany

EU

Europe

Kazakhstan

2
1
1

10

*
*

Kansas

*
*
*

*
*

*
*

6
*

14

11

10

3
*

*
*

Number
of Countries
5

Yes

Indiana

Yes

Yes

Florida

Yes

Delaware

Illinois

Czech Republic

China
*

Idaho

Colombia

Chile

Canada

Brazil

State

Belgium

Australia

STATE OVERSEAS TRADE OFFICE LOCATIONS, 2015

Louisiana

Yes

Massachusetts

No

Maryland

Yes

Maine

No

Michigan

Yes

Minnesota

Yes

Missouri

Yes

Mississippi

Yes

Montana

Yes

North Carolina

Yes

North Dakota

Yes

Nebraska

Yes

New Hampshire

No

New Jersey

Yes

New Mexico

Yes

Nevada

No

8
0

9
0

*
*

12

*
*

2
1

5
*

5
2
0

*
*

w
*

New York

Yes

Ohio

Yes

Oklahoma

Yes

Oregon

Yes

*
*

*
*

*
*

3
*

6
7

*
*

Pennsylvania

Yes

Rhode Island

No

South Carolina

No

South Dakota

No

Tennessee

Yes

Texas

Yes

Utah

Yes

Virginia

No

Vermont

No

Washington

Yes

Wisconsin

Yes

West Virginia

Yes

Wyoming

No

Number of States
4

17

0
*

*
*

4
1

5
0
0

*
*

9
4

2
0

14

13

27

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

14

1 12 20 1

24

3 11 1

3 12 1

SOURCE: 2015 STATE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS SURVEY

199