A U.S. Trade Surplus?

For some time now we’ve been hearing the near panicked sound of economists and pundits decrying our high trade deficit and the horror it shall reap upon our teetering and fragile economy.  And things just got worse this week, as high oil price have led to an even higher U.S. trade deficit.

However, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) released on Wednesday, in one area the U.S. is actually running a trade surplus: private services.  U.S. trade in private services totaled $526.6 billion in 2010, representing a trade surplus that is growing, rising from $66.7 billion in 2003 to $168 billion in 2010.

“The findings reported today are a remarkable statement about the strength of America’s trade in services,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “While much attention is given to the overall trade balance–and the Obama administration is committed to working to narrow the trade deficit – today’s report highlights an often overlooked but important and increasingly robust dimension of America’s role in global trade.”

The brief, based on data from the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, points to the financial and business services sector as contributing the most to the U.S. trade surplus, in addition to significant contributions from education services, fees for software and industrial process licenses, and other royalties. Travel represented the largest category of exports of services by the United States.