Book Exports Record Solid Growth in 2000

Staff -- graphic arts online, 1/1/2001

The value of books exported by U.S. publishers totaled an estimated $3.192 billion through the first nine months of 2000, up 6.5% from the export total seen in January through September 1999. Meanwhile, book imports were growing at a faster rate than exports, although U.S. booksellers continue to import far less than they export. Nevertheless, the nation's surplus position grew smaller virtually every year of the past decade. Book imports increased by 7.3% in 1999 and 8.0% in 1997 and 1998; total exports over the three-year period fell slightly.

Through the first nine months of 2000, $2.432 billion worth of books and other printed material was imported into the U.S., representing growth of 11.9% from same period in 1999, and almost twice as much as the 6.5% increase in exports in 2000.

In contrast to our still-solid-if shrinking-surplus position in the international book trade, the nation has long been in a deficit position regarding the international trade of writing materials. In 1999, an estimated $3.789 billion more of these items was imported into the United States than was sold to other countries by U.S. firms. During the first nine months of 2000, growth in exported writing materials reached 11.3%, while import growth was at 12.1%.