Area economy shows strength in exports
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 26, 2010
By Tim Logan
The St. Louis area fared well on a new measure of exports out today. But the region risks falling behind if it can't find new goods to sell abroad.
About one-eighth of St. Louis' $130 billion economy is tied to exporting, according to a report released today from the Brookings Institution. That's higher than the national average, and it supports nearly 122,000 jobs in the region.
But exports from here grew only 4 percent a year from 2003 to 2008, less than half of the rate of the U.S. as a whole. And the Brookings' report did not include last year's shutdown of Chrysler's Fenton plant or cuts at GM's Wentzville van plant -- cars and car parts are St. Louis' single-biggest export products.
Boosting exports -- in St. Louis and across the country -- is a key leg of any economic recovery, many experts say. If U.S. companies can sell more goods to the swelling ranks of middle-class consumers in Brazil, China, India and elsewhere, they can rely a little less on tapped out middle-class consumers here at home.
"True economic recovery and job growth in America will depend on substantial growth in the amount of goods and services we sell to other nations," said Bruce Katz, who heads Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program.
The administration of President Barack Obama has set a goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five years -- a feat that only four of the nation's 100 largest metro areas accomplished in the last five years, according to Brookings.
St. Louis, at 4 percent a year, is well behind that pace, and with automaking showing no signs of a revival here, local economic development officials are looking elsewhere for growth.
Advanced manufacturing -- things like high-end machinery, electronics and medical devices -- have a lot of potential here, said Tim Nowak, executive director of the World Trade Center St. Louis. So do chemicals and food products. Aerospace remains strong, with Boeing selling St. Louis-built fighter jets to countries like Singapore and South Korea and marketing them to a half-dozen more. And many are hoping the region's Midwest China Hub project could be a way to strengthen regional trade ties.
In March, the World Trade Center helped launch the Missouri Trade Initiative, a bid to help local companies, particularly smaller companies, better tap foreign markets. It can be a daunting process, Nowak said. But it's one that's becoming more important all the time.
"The long-term recovery of the nation, of our own region, really comes in finding new buyers, new markets," he said. "It's not just going to be relying on the domestic market."
