The ITA promotes trade and investments in the United States through data aggregation and studies on global markets and specific U.S. regions. The agency utilizes its research to negotiate on behalf of U.S. industries and is also responsible for enforcing compliance with trade agreements.
The ITA reports trade totals for exports in the largest export metros in the U.S. The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro area, which consists of two counties, exported $13.61 billion in 2018. The U.S. metro area with the nearest export total was the ten-county Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area in South Carolina and North Carolina.
The metro area responsible for the most exports in the U.S. was Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, a nine-county metro area in Texas. It exported $120.71 billion in 2018, or $107.1 billion more than Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale.
The following table shows the value of total exports for other metros with export totals similar to Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale.
| Rank | Metro Area | Total exported (in billions) | Difference from Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | San Diego-Carlsbad, CA | $20.16 | $6,541.93 |
| 20 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $19.82 | $6,203.35 |
| 21 | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | $14.05 | $437.84 |
| 22 | Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | $13.61 | -- |
| 23 | Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $13.09 | -$528.02 |
| 24 | Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC | $12.97 | -$640.71 |
| 25 | Austin-Round Rock, TX | $12.93 | -$684.94 |