The Yankee Salesmen

While the economy is forging ahead at home, businessmen are again proving that the U.S. is a vigorous nation of Yankee traders. Exports are selling so well that Administration experts expect them to increase by $2 billion to a record $24 billion this year.

U.S. office accounting machines and computers are selling well in most of the world, particularly in Japan. A worldwide building boom is pushing up sales of earth-moving equipment; Caterpillar Tractor's first-quarter exports are up 17%. Because of increased mining activity, mainly in Canada, South America and Africa, export sales of the Denver Equipment Co., one of the leading U.S. makers of mining equipment, rose 45% in the first quarter above their year-ago level. The recent sale of 29 Boeing 727 medium-range jetliners to foreign airlines has reversed a three-year decline in U.S. aircraft exports, and the efficient U.S. coal industry still undersells European coal right in Europe. Though most of the U.S. exports are sought because they are clearly superior in performance, an increasing amount is sold because much of the rest of the world can now afford U.S. luxuries; Iowa's Amana Refrigeration Co. reported a 50% first-quarter export gain, chiefly on the sales abroad of its air conditioners.

The Government has helped U.S. businessmen win more sales abroad by setting up exhibition centers for U.S. products, ordering its commercial attaches to help U.S. firms find customers, and offering export insurance that takes much of the risk out of doing business with foreign customers. The expansion of U.S. banks abroad has also aided American companies overseas. Widespread inflation--which raises the price of foreign goods and makes U.S. products relatively less expensive--is helping sell more U.S. goods abroad. Because of Europe's inflation and labor shortage, many U.S. companies with European subsidiaries are hiking their exports of goods from stateside plants.

Since foreign imports to the U.S. remained steady while U.S. exports rose, the U.S. piled up a trade surplus in the three months that ended in February at an annual rate of $7 billion. This lopsided situation is unlikely to last indefinitely. A rise in prices in the U.S. could counteract any advantage U.S. goods now have abroad, and continued American prosperity is certain to attract more imports. But the trade pattern of the early months of 1964 arouses hope that the U.S. is on the way to solving its balance-of-payments problem.

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