Foreign trade by state.

With foreign trade and tariffs in the news, that map of Top Import Partner of Every U.S. State is a little bit interesting.

There is a lot of Canada, China and Mexico, but Ireland is Indiana’s biggest foreign partner and in Idaho, it’s Malaysia.  What do we get from Ireland and Malaysia?

Ireland is known for alcohol and Irish people.  I prefer Bailey’s Irish Cream to Irish whiskey, and Smithwick’s to Guinness, but it’s all good.  Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson and Conor McGregor are popular Irishmen, but no Irish women come to mind.

Indiana gets pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals from Ireland, primarily from Eli Lilly.

Malaysia isn’t known for anything.  Nobody thinks about it.  For people acquainted with Asia, Malaysia is thought of as Singapore’s poor cousin. 

From Malaysia, Idaho gets computer parts like keyboards and solid-state memory devices like USB drives and SSD hard-drives.  Idaho also imports packs of urea in aqueous solution.  That sounds like bags of piss used to make fertilizer.  

Both of those states were just a little unusual.  Another minor fact I learned.  Ireland is the third richest country in the world.  That is according to the IMF and per capita GDP.