Wisconsin’s total imports in the first quarter increased more than 9% to $10.5 billion, including a 20% increase in March alone, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state’s exports, meanwhile, increased about 2% for the quarter to $7.1 billion.
Nationally, imports were up more than 25% in the quarter, including a 32% increase in March. Exports were up 3% in the quarter nationally with a 6.5% increase in March.
For Wisconsin, imports from Asia saw particularly strong growth for March with a 20.8% increase on imports from China to $1.78 billion and a 35.4% increase for imports from the rest of Asia to $2.39 billion.
Among other major trading partners, imports from Europe were up 18.4% to $3.37 billion for the quarter, imports from Canada were up just 0.4% to $1.68 billion and imports from Mexico were down 32.6% to $1.16 billion.
On the export side, sales to two of Wisconsin’s top destinations were down in the quarter. Exports to Canada decreased 3.67% to $2.02 billion and exports to Mexico were down 5.72% to $1.06 billion.
The state did see an increase in exports to Europe of 11.76% to reach $1.27 billion. Among Wisconsin’s top 10 trade destinations in Europe, exports to the Netherlands saw the strongest increase followed by the United Kingdom, France and Poland.
Wisconsin exports to Germany, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Ireland and Spain were all down for the quarter.
The state’s exports to Asia also increased 6.05% to $1.58 billion, although sales to China were down 0.87% in the quarter to just under $314 million.
Among other top trade destinations in Asia, exports to both Singapore and Vietnam from Wisconsin more than doubled compared to the first quarter of 2024. Malaysia and Hong Kong also saw strong increases.
On the other hand, exports from Wisconsin to South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Israel all decreased for the quarter.
