Report: Utah exports topped $18B last year, supported 70K jobs

Utah has been an overachiever for years when it comes to the state’s volume of import/export business and a new report finds international trade continues to be among the major drivers behind one of the country’s leading economies.

While the ongoing tumult fomented by President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policy changes has cast a cloud of uncertainty over the broader business community, the just-released Utah International Trade, 2024 analysis from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute provides insight into this powerful economic sector.

Gardner researchers found Utah companies moved $18.2 billion worth of exported goods in 2024, while directly supporting 70,171 jobs with $3.9 billion in earnings and contributing nearly $8 billion to the state’s gross domestic product and $15.9 billion to Utah’s gross industry sales output.

Utah’s 2024 export revenues have also helped propel the state’s overall economy to a new plateau.

For the first time ever, Utah’s GDP, a measure of the total value of goods and services produced in the state, broke the $300 billion mark in 2024, hitting $301 billion last year. Utah’s GDP year-over-year growth rate in 2024 came in at 4.5%, the highest in the U.S. The state is also holding down the No. 1 spot in cumulative GDP growth over the last 10 years with a 64% rate.

Highlights from the new international trade report include:

• Utah exports — Utah’s merchandise exports tallied $18.2 billion in 2024 and shipped to 201 countries. After adjusting for inflation, the state’s 2024 exports decreased $659.0 million over 2023, a 3.5% decline.

• Largest trading partners — The United Kingdom received the largest value of Utah’s exports at $7.9 billion in 2024 or 43.6%. Approximately $7.6 billion of Utah’s exports to the UK consist of unwrought gold. Canada at $1.5 billion, China at $1.1 billion, Mexico at $1.1 billion and Japan at $700 million round out Utah’s top five export trading partners.

• Primary metals — Primary metal manufacturing contributed 44.7% of Utah’s total exports and $8.1 billion in value; gold represents 97% of this value. Computer and electronic products came in second at $1.7 billion (9.6%), followed by chemicals at $1.5 billion (8.0%).

• National comparison – Over the last decade (2014 to 2024), Utah exports increased by 12.0%, compared with national growth of 15.8%, adjusted for inflation.

• Utah imports – Utah’s merchandise imports totaled $21.9 billion in 2024 and shipped from 154 countries. That led to a goods trade deficit of $3.7 billion.

• Economic impacts – Utah’s exports in 2024 supported an estimated $8.0 billion in GDP, $3.9 billion of earnings, $15.9 billion of output, and 70,171 jobs. These impacts represent 2.6% of GDP, 2.3% of earnings, 3.0% of output, and 2.9% of total employment in Utah.

Tariff uncertainty roils Utah business sector

The report also notes Trump’s trade policy gyrations, aiming to rebalance the global trade realm, have “increased uncertainty and will likely increase costs for businesses and consumers.”

Those business uncertainties were highlighted earlier this week in discussions featuring executives from Utah companies during the Crossroads of the World International Trade Summit hosted by Zions Bank and World Trade Center Utah.

Kimberley Honeysett, chief legal officer for Varex Imaging, an independent supplier of X-ray tubes and image processing solutions for medical and security applications, said her company’s strategy of locating manufacturing facilities proximate to customers was being upended by the new tariff policies.

“One of the risks, certainly, for a lot of companies that have both import and export functions is the opposite of what they’re trying to accomplish, pushing U.S. manufacturing outside the U.S.,” Honeysett said. “The risk is it backfires.”

Honeysett explained how trade levies, both those issued by the U.S. and reciprocal actions by other countries, were impacting Varex on both sides of the company’s import/export equation.

“We import goods, we’re the importer of record and we get the tariffs and our prices are increasing,” Honeysett said. “We also export so, on the other side, we get the tariff. From our perspective (the U.S. trade policies) are more harmful than beneficial.”

John Hortin, chief financial officer for Wavetronix, a Utah-based manufacturer of radar traffic detection devices, said the company’s business with China has “dried up” and he and the Wavetronix team are currently navigating trade tariff uncertainty by “biding our time and waiting to see where it will land.”

Hortin said he believes U.S. trade policy would lead to more effective outcomes if implementation was strategic and targeted, rather than broad-based.

“It’s important to be specific rather than broad,” Hortin said. “The rhetoric we’re hearing now is we’ve been taken advantage of across the board. And I’m not sure that’s true. Blanket tariffs, I really think, generate the trade war more than solve problems.”

Where Trump’s tariffs stand

Trump announced a raft of country-specific reciprocal tariffs last month along with a blanket 10% levy on foreign imports. On April 9, the president declared a 90-day pause on the reciprocal trade fees but kept the 10% assessment in place. That same day, Trump also announced an increase on imports from China that raised the effective levy on most imports from the country to 145%.

Here’s where new U.S. tariffs stand for the moment:

• China tariffs are at 145%, following a series of increases.
• Tariffs of 25% are in place on steel and aluminum imports, imported automobiles and goods from Canada and Mexico not covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
• Imports from all other countries are subject to a 10% trade levy.