Facts & Figures

NAFTA has brought serious business to Arkansas, which exports nearly $2 billion a year to Canada and Mexico. Aircraft manufacturing drives Arkansas’ exports, but the state also profits from international trade in its agricultural and livestock products. As the home base for Walmart Stores, Inc., Arkansans have seen firsthand how engagement in the global economy can drive growth and create jobs.

Job Creation

• Trade supported more than 320,000 jobs in Arkansas in 2008, or 20% of total jobs, up from 9.5% in 1992.¹
• Almost one-seventh (14.2%) of all manufacturing workers in Arkansas depended on exports for their jobs.²
• In 2008, 33,000 people in Arkansas were employed by foreign-controlled companies.³

Exports and Growth

• Arkansas exported $5.2 billion in merchandise to foreign markets in 2010. Arkansas’s largest market in 2010 was Canada ($1.3 billion), followed by Mexico ($544 million), France ($343 million), China ($336 million), and the United Kingdom ($168 million).⁴
• In 2008, over 1,500 companies exported goods from Arkansas. Of these, 77% were small- and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees. 
• Agricultural exports are important to Arkansas’s economy, totaling $2.6 billion and supporting about 37,000 jobs in 2009.⁵
• Since 2007, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has financed nearly $315 million in exports from 27 companies in 20 communities in Arkansas.⁶
• Since 1971, Overseas Private Investment Corporation has invested close to $550 million in companies throughout Arkansas.⁷

Education and Research

• In 2008–2009, more than 1,000 Arkansas students studied abroad.⁸
• During 2009–2010, 3,500 international students were enrolled in Arkansas colleges and universities and contributed $75 million to the Arkansas economy.⁹

Global Engagement

• Since 1961, about 900 Peace Corps volunteers from Arkansas have served in dozens of countries overseas.¹⁰
• Support from U.S. government grants and contracts to private voluntary organizations engaged in foreign assistance and development in Arkansas totaled $46 million in 2008.¹¹

1. http://businessroundtable.org/uploads/studies-reports/downloads/Trade_and_American_Jobs.pdf
2. http://www.trade.gov/mas/ian/statereports/
3. http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2010/11%20November/1110_us_ops.pdf
4. http://www.trade.gov/mas/ian/statereports/
5. http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/WTO/states.html
6. https://webappsprod01.exim.gov/apps/usmap/usmap.nsf
7. http://www.opic.gov/sites/default/files/docs/OPIC_local_impact.pdf
8. http://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/Fact-Sheets-by-US-State
9. http://www.nafsa.org/publicpolicy/default.aspx?id=23158
10. http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/stats/homestates.pdf
11. http://www.pvo.net/usaid/