The U.S. share of world imports grew from 13.3% in 2022 to 13.5% in 2023.

Among all importing countries, the U.S. economy ranked first in 2023, with $3.2 trillion, according to Commerce Department data.

The data only includes trade in goods, not services.

Here’s what the U.S. share of this indicator looked like over the past five years:

• 2019: 13.4 percent.
• 2020: 13.6 percent.
• 2021: 13.1 percent.
• 2022: 13.3 percent.
• 2023: 13.5 percent.

Share of world imports

In the United States, importers must present entry documents to import goods. 

These include the manifest, or currently, eManifest, bill of lading and an electronic cargo declaration, which must be submitted to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). 

Thanks to the development of the single window (ACE), all customs processing is done through this electronic system. 

Customs requirements

The World Trade Organization (WTO) reports that the United States requires licenses or permits for a limited number of product categories at the time of importation, most of which did not undergo significant changes during the review period. 

As of March 2022, there were 19 such licensing requirements for a variety of goods for a variety of purposes; most (17) were non-automatic licensing requirements and two were automatic. 

Long-term licensing requirements remained in place to implement agricultural tariff quotas, i.e., dairy products and sugar; to protect against import of pests and diseases for animal and plant products; to prevent tax fraud, i.e., alcohol and tobacco products; and for other products, such as chemicals, firearms, explosives, nuclear materials, etc., for safety and security reasons. 

Competition

For its part, China‘s share of world imports had the following sequence:

• 2019: 10.8 percent.
• 2020: 11.6 percent.
• 2021: 11.9 percent.
• 2022: 10.7 percent.
• 2023: 10.9 percent.