- 32 shipments in this period. These are: (1) Civilian aircraft where sales were off sharply in 1969 as compared with 1968, pending delivery of the new super-jets; (2) computers which, according to the companies, are normally shipped by air; and (3) exports of autos and original equipment parts to Canada under the U. S.-Canadian Auto Agreement. Although exports of machinery dipped more than $300 million below trend in the strike months, the data, after adjusting for aircraft, autos, and computers, appear to indicate that this was a delay in shipping and no sales were actually lost. Once the ports opened, exports jumped sharply. This was confirmed by extensive interviews with producers of exported types of machinery. Imports of machinery dropped half as much as exports. Imports of automobiles, except autos from Canada entering under the terms of the U. S. -Canadian Automotive Products Agreement, dropped very sharply during January and February 1969, but recovered in the following three months as ships were unloaded and outstanding orders were filled. Miscellaneous Products - The major components of the group exports of scientific and technical instruments and apparatus does not appear to have been affected by the port closings. This may reflect the intrinsic nature of these items high value making them readily shippable by air. Most of these items also have unique characteristics which act to preserve their markets. - Imports of apparel and shoes fell fairly sharply during the strike months, even though large volumes of apparel and "style" shoes come by air, according to the importing agents with whom we spoke. The data imply that some imported apparel sales were actually lost, not surprising when it is realized that many of the items are seasonal and lost out on the winter sales. Economic Classes - In addition to the ten commodity groupings, foreign trade data are also compiled in five economic classes Finished Goods, Semi-Finished Goods, Crude Materials, Manufactured Foods and Crude Foods. These data are, however, only available quarterly. Attempts to analyze the economic class data in approximately the same manner as that for the commodity groups gave meaningless results since the strike months did not conform to the quarterly data. Even though the 1968-1969 strike officially included the entire first quarter of 1969, enough of the major ports reopened in mid-February so that both February and March data included a considerable element of recovery so that first quarter data are misleading. The attempt to analyze the economic groupings did however lead to development of measures of the shift in the pattern of trade among economic classes during the period. These data are presented in Table 3 for the period 1961 to date - 34 they clearly show how U. S. foreign trade is becoming increasingly concentrated in manufactured goods. In the first quarter of 1961 about 56 percent of exports and 33 percent of imports were finished goods (other than foods). In the first quarter of 1969, the comparable data had jumped to over 70 and 54 percent respectively. Although trade in crude materials and crude foodstuffs had increased in absolute amount, it has dropped relatively, and now accounts for only 12 percent of exports and 18 percent of imports. |