Trade Data Demonstrate Importance of NAFTA to U.S. Coatings Manufacturers

The U.S. coatings industry has long been one of the relatively rare manufacturing industries has consistently posted large trade surpluses, both in absolute dollars and in relation to its size. This is largely a reflection of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which has seen total coatings exports^[1] to Canada and Mexico rise from approximately $418 million in 1995 (the year after NAFTA came into being) to over $1.5 billion in 2017.  In the context of overall industry growth, U.S. coatings manufacturers exported approximately 2.6% of production (by value) to NAFTA in 1995, while exporting 6.6% of production to NAFTA partners in 2017.

Figure 1 shows the overall trend of exports of waterborne and solvent-borne coatings to Canada and Mexico over the past decade.

Not only are NAFTA coatings exports strong, they far exceed corresponding imports from Canada and Mexico.

As shown in Figure 2, U.S. manufacturers enjoy large trade surplus with both NAFTA partners, but with several other, smaller trading partners, apart from German and Japan, which both export more coatings products to the U.S. than vice versa (although both are relatively small trading partners, especially as compared to the NAFTA bloc.)

The U.S. International Trade Commission web portal allows access to an enormous amount of trade data.  Users can analyze trade in numerous ways and can obtain a detailed view of trade flows.

For example, the district level trade data clearly demonstrate the importance of NAFTA trade, with the bulk of international coatings exports going through ports of entry on the Mexican and Canadian borders, versus otherwise very large ports such as Los Angeles, which are important in Asian trade.

Contact ACA’s Allen Irish for more information.

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^[1] HTS 3208 (solvent-borne coatings) and 3209 (waterborne coatings) only.

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from American Coatings Association https://www.paint.org/nafta-trade/
via IFTTT