By Simon Lester in Trump Administration — 07 May 2026 — Share

Tracking Goods Exports under the Trump Administration's Trade Policies

My sense is that one of the reasons some traditionally pro-trade members of Congress have continued to support Trump's trade policies, despite misgivings they may have about tariffs, is because they are hoping these aggressive policies will pry open foreign markets, leading to increased U.S. exports of agricultural and other products. I thought it might be worth checking on how this is working out so far, so I took a look at some Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data on goods exports. (I'm probably not the best person to do this sort of data analysis, as I'm way out of practice, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway!)

The data provided in monthly BEA trade data releases only goes back two years, so to get a fuller picture through a three year comparison, I took the March 2026 and March 2024 releases and then integrated the data from Exhibit 7: U.S. Exports of Goods by End-Use Category and Commodity in each release to create the table at the bottom of this post – scroll down to see it. (Producing a readable table on this blog platform was a challenge. I'll try to do better next time! An Excel spreadsheet I created with the data is here, if that makes things easier for people).

The table shows exports for the period from January-March, broken down by product category, for the years 2024 through 2026, and then indicates the change (positive or negative) from 2024 to 2026. From this data, you can see that it is true, as U.S. Trade Rep. Greer noted recently, that overall exports are up. However, the breakdown for specific goods categories shows some interesting things:

Foods, feeds, and beverages are slightly down, with soybeans dropping the most and corn rising the most
Industrial supplies and materials are up, with most of the increase being in non-monetary gold and precious metals
Capital goods, except automotive are up, with most of the increase being in computers, computer accessories, and semiconductors
Automotive vehicles, parts, and engines are down
Consumer goods are slightly down

When going through those bullet points, and especially after looking at the figures in the table below, you may ask what I did: What is "non-monetary gold" and why are its exports up so much (representing more than a third of the total increase in exports from 2024 to 2026)? On this issue, a website called Investopedia had this to say back in January:

Exports of non-monetary gold and other precious metals surged by more than $10 billion in October, offsetting declines elsewhere and accounting for more than the total $7.1 billion rise in exports that month. The spike came as gold hit a then-record high on Oct. 20, part of a recent trend of investors piling into the safe-haven asset.

I'm not sure what to make of that, or whether the increase in exports of these products will continue. Regardless, I don't get the sense this is what the pro-trade members of Congress had in mind for export growth.

On the other noticeable shifts, I'll just speculate a bit: Maybe the increase in exports of computers, computer accessories, and semiconductors is due to the AI boom? And maybe the fall in auto exports is due to the recent decrease in Tesla sales in many markets?

As I said, I haven't worked with data much recently, so please feel free to point out any errors you see or make suggestions!

U.S. Exports of Goods by End-Use Category and Commodity (in millions of dollars), January - March, by year 2024-2026

Item	2026	2025	2024	Change
Total, Balance of Payments Basis	615,849	537,956	519,306	96,543
Net Adjustments	2,351	5,550	4,172	-1,821
Total, Census Basis	613,497	532,407	515,134	98,363

Foods, feeds, and beverages	43,062	39,560	43,159	-97
Alcoholic beverages, excluding wine	802	707	914	-112
Animal feeds, n.e.c.	2,893	2,786	3,011	-118
Bakery products	2,044	2,099	2,162	-118
Corn	4,636	4,312	3,551	1,085
Dairy products and eggs	2,025	1,968	1,724	301
Fish and shellfish	1,387	1,285	1,398	-11
Fruits, frozen juices	2,438	2,317	2,278	160
Meat, poultry, etc.	6,642	6,614	6,430	212
Nonagricultural foods, etc.	104	119	125	-21
Nuts	3,613	2,684	2,825	788
Oilseeds, food oils	808	1,095	603	205
Other foods	4,921	5,011	4,627	294
Rice	420	555	678	-258
Sorghum, barley, oats	547	71	543	4
Soybeans	6,102	4,154	7,987	-1,885
Vegetables	1,904	2,021	2,174	-270
Wheat	1,458	1,378	1,651	-193
Wine, beer, and related products	320	384	478	-158


Industrial supplies and materials	240,152	186,191	187,148	53,004
Agric. farming-unmanufactured	913	852	908	5
Agric. industry-unmanufactured	1,166	1,233	1,350	-184
Agriculture-manufactured, other	1,089	1,086	1,003	86
Aluminum and alumina	2,724	2,307	2,533	191
Coal and fuels, other	2,637	2,560	2,626	11
Copper	3,615	2,649	2,580	1,035
Cotton fiber cloth	270	332	385	-115
Cotton, raw	969	1,205	1,630	-661
Crude oil	26,070	27,482	30,325	-4,255
Electric energy	342	211	472	-130
Fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides	3,076	2,683	2,625	451
Finished metal shapes	8,099	7,127	6,643	1,456
Finished textile supplies	624	669	668	-44
Fuel oil	13,423	11,543	12,325	1,098
Glass-plate, sheet, etc.	296	319	309	-13
Hair, waste materials	142	155	156	-14
Hides and skins	159	198	215	-56
Industrial rubber products	1,291	1,407	1,437	-146
Inorganic chemicals	2,795	2,779	2,596	199
Iron and steel mill products	2,642	2,741	3,133	-491
Iron and steel products, other	1,791	1,911	1,894	-103
Leather and furs	125	152	166	-41
Logs and lumber	1,267	1,182	1,365	-98
Manmade cloth	1,436	1,615	1,623	-187
Metallurgical grade coal	1,893	1,749	3,080	-1,187
Mineral supplies-manufactured	1,916	2,029	2,050	-134
Natural gas	16,737	13,525	8,529	8,208
Natural gas liquids	8,659	9,663	8,570	89
Newsprint	2,892	3,254	3,244	-352
Nonmetallic minerals	327	174	173	154
Nonmonetary gold	46,683	12,120	10,595	36,088
Nontextile floor tiles	131	125	136	-5
Nuclear fuel materials	316	505	368	-52
Organic chemicals	7,232	7,642	8,066	-834
Other chemicals	9,451	9,907	9,727	-276
Other industrial supplies	8,431	8,784	8,424	7
Other nonferrous metals	2,667	2,321	2,373	294
Other petroleum products	20,429	18,846	21,143	-714
Plastic materials	10,373	11,592	11,716	-1,343
Precious metals, other	18,357	2,524	2,547	15,810
Pulpwood and woodpulp	1,893	2,070	2,128	-235
Shingles, molding, wallboard	1,235	1,472	1,484	-249
Steelmaking materials	2,235	1,975	2,277	-42
Synthetic rubber-primary	858	906	933	-75
Tapes, audio and visual	16	25	40	-24
Tobacco, unmanufactured	193	257	236	-43
Wood supplies, manufactured	265	325	341	-76


Capital goods, except automotive	199,830	174,262	155,483	44,347
Agricultural machinery, equipment	2,195	2,332	2,589	-394
Business machines and equipment	556	547	488	68
Civilian aircraft	14,368	12,805	8,601	5,767
Civilian aircraft engines	21,235	18,066	15,235	6,000
Civilian aircraft parts	7,236	6,975	6,675	561
Commercial vessels, other	124	97	81	43
Computer accessories	21,132	12,461	8,792	12,340
Computers	15,731	7,379	5,476	10,255
Drilling & oilfield equipment	648	836	919	-271
Electric apparatus	14,597	14,842	13,604	993
Excavating machinery	2,724	2,863	3,244	-520
Food, tobacco machinery	996	1,081	1,014	-18
Generators, accessories	4,042	4,040	3,730	312
Industrial engines	8,213	8,224	7,941	272
Laboratory testing instruments	3,198	3,359	3,514	-316
Marine engines, parts	354	419	361	-7
Materials handling equipment	3,575	3,816	4,057	-482
Measuring, testing, control instruments	7,361	7,909	7,348	13
Medical equipment	11,455	11,121	11,611	-156
Metalworking machine tools	1,385	1,612	1,875	-490
Nonfarm tractors and parts	810	918	998	-188
Other industrial machinery	17,639	17,940	17,466	173
Photo, service industry machinery	2,548	2,694	2,709	-161
Pulp and paper machinery	514	529	569	-55
Railway transportation equipment	933	993	932	1
Semiconductors	22,493	17,854	13,963	8,530
Spacecraft, excluding military	22	35	12	10
Specialized mining	267	332	327	-60
Telecommunications equipment	12,601	11,070	10,166	2,435
Textile, sewing machines	169	214	240	-71
Vessels, excluding scrap	5	141	4	1
Wood, glass, plastic	705	760	941	-236


Automotive vehicles, parts, and engines	37,928	42,350	42,899	-4,971
Automotive tires and tubes	697	832	871	-174
Bodies and chassis for passenger cars	92	78	36	56
Engines and engine parts	4,928	5,310	5,205	-277
Other automotive parts and accessories	14,009	15,078	15,109	-1,100
Passenger cars	11,766	13,933	15,339	-3,573
Trucks, buses, and special purpose vehicles	6,436	7,120	6,339	97


Consumer goods	64,341	65,833	64,708	-367
Artwork and other collectibles	2,587	2,450	3,089	-502
Books, printed matter	959	968	940	19
Cell phones and other household goods	9,120	8,735	8,350	770
Cookware, cutlery, tools	262	290	295	-33
Furniture, household goods, etc.	1,206	1,292	1,354	-148
Gem diamonds	2,182	4,470	4,219	-2,037
Glassware, chinaware	82	99	116	-34
Household appliances	1,653	1,876	1,851	-198
Jewelry	3,612	3,632	3,675	-63
Musical instruments	584	641	674	-90
Nontextile apparel and household goods	677	789	767	-90
Numismatic coins	1,178	382	250	928
Nursery stock, etc.	115	128	118	-3
Other consumer nondurables	1,760	1,886	1,872	-112
Pharmaceutical preparations	27,150	26,536	25,316	1,834
Pleasure boats and motors	685	584	905	-220
Recorded media	263	256	377	-114
Rugs	172	200	184	-12
Sports apparel and gear	186	190	198	-12
Stereo equipment, etc.	667	789	751	-84
Televisions and video equipment	587	597	657	-70
Textile apparel and household goods	1,951	1,954	2,031	-80
Tobacco, manufactured	251	199	111	140
Toiletries and cosmetics	3,849	3,879	3,914	-65
Toys, games, and sporting goods	2,602	3,010	2,696	-94


Other goods	28,183	24,210	21,737	6,446

Source: Data derived from Bureau of Economic Analysis trade data