• U.S.

Business: Exports: Going Up

2 minute read
TIME

If U.S. businessmen last week found little to encourage them in sales at home, they found plenty in their performance in world markets. U.S. exports will not only rise this year to a record $20 billion (v. 1959’s $16.4 billion), reported the Commerce Department, but should do as well in 1961.

The Commerce Department’s forecast was also good news for the U.S. Government, which had expected exports to slip next year, thus worsen the U.S. balance-of-payments problem. Big exports of aircraft and raw cotton in 1960 were considered to be one-shot performances that would not be repeated in 1961. Last week the Department of Agriculture estimated that agriculture exports will not drop by more than 10%, which could easily be made up by increases in industrial materials. Sales of jets abroad will continue high, partly because of an order backlog of twelve to 18 months.

Exports are being helped by the elimination of barriers abroad against dollar imports. Equally important, businessmen can now expect long-term markets not tied to boom-or-bust fluctuations. In 1960 a large part of U.S. sales to Europe were in finished consumer goods—bought to satisfy the European’s growing taste for a higher standard of living. “For the first time in decades,” says Secretary of Commerce Frederick Mueller, “there is discretionary buying in Europe. Even if the industrial activity in Europe lessens slightly, it should not greatly affect our opportunities to sell there.”

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