4 of Our Top 5 Imports Have Fallen in Price

The chart above shows the top five imports and exports at the Port of Los Angeles for 2010, based on the number of loaded containers.  This Business Insider story points out that the top five U.S. exports are raw materials, while the top five imports are finished goods. 

Something else about the top five imports that might be interesting is to compare the changes in the price indexes for those items over the last ten years (April 2001 to April 2010) to the overall change in the CPI during that period:

CPI: All Items        +27.5%

CPI: Furniture:     -11.6%
CPI: Toys:                -43.3%
CPI: Apparel:           -7.2%
CPI: Footwear:         3.3%
CPI: Auto parts:      +35.9%

Bottom Line: The real prices of furniture, toys, apparel and footwear have all fallen substantially over the last ten years, by double-digit percent declines, and the real price of auto parts has increased.  Furniture, toys, apparel and footwear all require very labor-intensive production processes, and by purchasing these products from Mexico, China, Vietnam and India where labor costs are low, American consumers have probably saved many millions, if not billions of dollars.  

It's probably not a coincidence that the top imports coming through the L.A. Port are some of the products that have fallen the most significantly in real price over the last decade, to the great benefit of America's consumers.  Remember that countries don't trade with each other at the national level, people trade; and t's American consumers who are shopping globally for the best price and value.  For furniture, clothing, footwear, and toys, cost-conscious American consumers are wisely taking advantage of the falling real prices for those items that are imported from overseas, and that bargain-hunting consumer behavior ("consumer greed") is being reflected in the import volumes at the L.A. Port.