Orange County posted the fourth-largest dollar increase in exports in 1999, according to the latest figures from the Department of Commerce.
The county’s 1999 exports grew by $1.1 billion from 1998, just slightly less than that of No. 3 Austin-San Marcos, Texas. San Jose grabbed top spot with a $2 billion rise in 1999 exports, followed by El Paso, Texas at $1.2 billion. In all, OC’s 1999 exports were up 14% to $9.3 billion.
“We are obviously doing well,” said Esmael Adibi, director of Chapman University’s Center for Economic Research in Orange and a follower of local exports. “It also shows how dependent we are on the performance of our trading partners.”
Asia’s economic crisis led to a 7% dip in OC exports in 1998. In 1999, local shipments resumed a heady growth pattern that’s played out for most of the past decade.
Mexico was OC’s top export market in 1999 with shipments of $1.7 billion. The county’s other free trade partner, Canada, knocked Japan out of the No.2 spot for the year, coming in at $1.2 billion worth of OC goods. Japan, once OC’s top export market, has yet to recover from a decade-long economic slump.
In terms of total exports, OC grabbed the No.12 spot among U.S. metropolitan areas for 1999.
The nation’s biggest 1999 exporter at $32.4 billion was Washington’s Seattle-Bellevue-Everett region, home to Boeing Co. San Jose ranked No.2 at $28 billion while Los Angeles-Long Beach ranked No.5, behind Detroit and New York, with $23.9 billion in exports that year. n
