WorldCity, Georgia to make a run at Buffalo for Top 10 ranking | Connecting Local Business Leaders To The Global Economy

Georgia to make a run at Buffalo for Top 10 ranking

January 25th, 2007

Georgia is likely to finish 2006 at the No. 10 ranked Customs district in the nation, its first appearance in that elite group in the modern era of international trade.

But it wasn’t through the first 11 months of the year, according to WorldCity analysis of U.S. Census data. Buffalo was holding the No. 10 position, as it has for years, ahead of the Savannah Customs district by less than six-tenths of 1 percentage point, or $448 million.

The gap has been narrowing all year but it will not be known for sure until the annual statistics are released on Feb. 13 which Customs district is No. 10.

The Customs district, which is led by Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, the Port of Savannah and the Port of Brunswick, is growing at double the rate of Buffalo, which is largely dependent on trade with the United States’ No. 1 trade partner, Canada.

2006	2005	Total Trade	November 2006 YTD	November 2005 YTD	Dollar Change	Percent Change
		World Total	$75,313,497,471	$66,155,919,089	$9,157,578,382	13.84%
1	1	China	$14,273,853,480	$11,152,119,460	$3,121,734,020	27.99%
2	2	Japan	$7,581,780,301	$7,230,639,368	$351,140,933	4.86%
3	3	Germany	$6,459,197,866	$5,810,022,370	$649,175,496	11.17%
4	4	South Korea	$3,994,128,903	$3,750,615,365	$243,513,538	6.49%
5	5	United Kingdom	$3,856,051,159	$3,595,886,217	$260,164,942	7.24%
6	7	Ireland	$3,040,092,906	$2,288,454,101	$751,638,805	32.84%
7	9	Australia	$2,407,369,634	$1,966,138,751	$441,230,883	22.44%
8	10	Italy	$2,201,575,361	$1,959,295,298	$242,280,063	12.37%
9	11	Taiwan	$2,184,346,881	$1,849,870,670	$334,476,211	18.08%
10	6	Malaysia	$2,151,987,182	$3,033,019,509	$(881,032,327)	-29.05%
11	13	Singapore	$1,941,485,412	$1,403,206,863	$538,278,549	38.36%
12	8	Netherlands	$1,791,818,260	$2,125,134,774	$(333,316,514)	-15.68%
13	12	France	$1,737,438,082	$1,451,469,453	$285,968,629	19.70%
14	14	Belgium	$1,286,248,946	$1,225,566,373	$60,682,573	4.95%
15	15	Thailand	$1,276,479,381	$1,133,345,782	$143,133,599	12.63%
16	18	Indonesia	$1,064,893,114	$927,101,520	$137,791,594	14.86%
17	21	Brazil	$1,033,015,870	$815,972,199	$217,043,671	26.60%
18	20	Spain	$988,181,659	$839,436,288	$148,745,371	17.72%
19	16	Sweden	$965,571,900	$1,090,581,252	$(125,009,352)	-11.46%
20	19	Hong Kong	$880,009,218	$857,185,759	$22,823,459	2.66%
21	17	Trinidad and Tobago	$879,396,365	$1,036,129,240	$(156,732,875)	-15.13%
22	22	India	$805,638,935	$618,608,244	$187,030,691	30.23%
23	24	Israel	$713,953,096	$527,379,972	$186,573,124	35.38%
24	27	Turkey	$700,298,794	$440,291,719	$260,007,075	59.05%
25	25	Switzerland	$698,107,757	$522,541,007	$175,566,750	33.60%

The Savannah Customs district, as it is officially known and which was ranked No. 13 just three years ago, has been climbing thanks to rapidly growing trade with China, its top trade partner and now the nation’s No. 2 ranked trade partner. Much of that trade is imports through the Port of Savannah, the electronics and apparel that find their way into the distribution system between surrounds Atlanta as well as the area between the two cities.

China’s trade with the state has more than doubled in just three years, going from $6.8 billion in 2003 to $14.3 billion through the first 11 months of 2006. But the state has seen rapid growth with a number of trade partners over the course of the last several years. Since 2003, trade with South Korea, a large importer of cars into Brunswick, is up 110 percent. Ireland is up 250 percent; Singapore, 208 percent; natural gas producer Trinidad & Tobago, 200 percent; Israel, 146 percent; Turkey, 207 percent; Switzerland, 119 percent; and Venezuela, 141 percent.

The only Top 10 Customs district that has grown more quickly since 2003 is Houston, which has been fueled by enormous gains in oil prices. Within the Top 25, only Philadelphia, Great Falls, Montana and Tampa have grown as faster or faster. The U.S. growth rate during that same time period was 47 percent.

For the first time, the state will exceed $50 billion in imports and have a deficit exceeding $25 billion, which has also nearly doubled since 2003. That is, of course, the price of having China as such a dominant trade partner. China accounts for more than one third of the total deficit.

But that doesn’t tell the whole deficit story, of course. Through the first 11 months of the year, Georgia had a trade surplus with 126 nations and a deficit with just 87.

The modern era of trade statistics started about 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and China’s embrace of market forces and a more open economy, both of which led to significant increases in global imports and exports.