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Even as Georgia‘s exports to China surged by 22 percent to a record $4.2 billion in 2021, the aspects of the trade relationship that most benefit metro Atlanta — services like plane tickets, port services and foreign-student tuition — plummeted in the prior year.
That’s according to a new breakdown of trade figures by the U.S.-China Business Council, which looked at states’ trade in goods for 2021 and services for 2020, the latest year for which statistics are available.
The year was marked by pandemic uncertainty and travel restrictions that hampered the ability of both students and tourists to cross into the U.S., where the tracked economic activity takes place.
Georgia’s services exports to China dropped by 33 percent in 2020 from $1.6 billion to $1.1 billion — the same rate of decline as the U.S. experienced at the national level. The country made up 5 percent of Georgia’s services exports during the year and fell to the state’s sixth largest services-export destination.
Looking at the prior-year (2019) USCBC report, it becomes clear that the lack of travel was mainly to blame for the export decline. Passenger fares and personal travel and tourism, the No. 2 and No. 3 services exports to China, accounted for $393 million in 2019. They didn’t register in the top five in 2020. Education, the top services export in both years, fell from $304 million in 2019 to $252 million in 2020, a decrease of about 17 percent.
“The jobs numbers tell a complicated story,” said Craig Allen, president of USCBC, in a news release. “While strong goods exports bolstered jobs in many communities across the country, the collapse of travel and the service industries tied to it was so severe that the total number of U.S. jobs supported by exports to China fell from the year before.”
Mr. Allen said exports to China continue to bolster many U.S. companies, even as the bilateral environment in Congress has turned increasingly negative, with multiple bills putting China in their crosshairs.
The USCBC once again calculated exports at the congressional-district level in an effort to give politicians and their advisers a glimpse at the local importance of the Chinese market.
In Georgia, China was the top export market in goods for the second congressional district covering an area south of Columbus and encompassing Albany, Ga., an area with substantial agricultural production. The district’s $598 million in exports to China were likely helped along by China’s elevated purchases of agricultural goods as it sought to make good on purchase commitments under the so-called Phase One trade deal negotiated with former President Donald Trump.
According to the USCBC’s calculations, Georgia’s goods and services exports to China supported 21,000 American jobs in 2020.
Export Totals to China by Georgia Congressional District (and ranking among Georgia export markets in each category, goods versus services)
See the full congressional district report here
1st: Buddy Carter (R), Savannah/Pooler — $588 million in goods (No.2), $202 million in services (No.2)
2nd: Sanford Bishop (D), Albany —$598 million (No. 1), $49 million in services (No. 3)
3rd: Drew Ferguson (R), West Point — $547 million in goods (No. 3), $31 million in services (No. 5)
4th: Hank Johnson (D), Lithonia — $93 million in goods (No. 4), $39 million in services (No. 6)
5th: Nikema Williams (D), Atlanta — $29 million in goods (No. 5), $268 million in services (No. 5)
6th – Lucy McBath (D), Marietta — $49 million in goods (No. 5), $129 million in services (No. 7)
7th: Carolyn Bordeaux (D), Suwanee — $148 million in goods (No. 5), $68 million in services (No. 7)
8th: Austin Scott (R), Tifton — $378 million in goods (No. 2), $29 million in services (No. 6)
9th: Andrew Clyde (R), Athens — $678 million in goods (No. 2), $32 million in services (No. 3)
10th: Jody Hice (R), Greensboro — $198 million in goods (No. 2), $36 million in services (No. 2)
11th: Barry Loudermilk (R), Cassville — $123 million in goods (No. 3), $89 million (No. 7)
12th: Rick Allen (R), Augusta — $379 million in goods (No. 2), $29 million in services (No. 3)
13th: David Scott (D), Atlanta — $54 million in goods (No. 3), $48 million in services (No. 7)
14th: Marjorie Taylor Greene — $314 million in goods (No. 3), $18 million in services (No. 7)
Georgia’s five services exports to China in 2020:
- Education — $252 million
- Ocean Freight & Port Services — $113 million
- Misc. Financial Services — $108 million
- Credit-related services — $93 million
- Software Distribution Royalties — $84 million