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Note 1. Merchandise Trade Value. Imports data presented are based on the customs values. Those values do not include insurance and freight and are consequently lower than the cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) values, which are also reported by the Bureau of the Census. All exports data, and imports data through 1980, are on a free alongside ship (f.a.s.) basis.
"Balance" is exports minus imports; a positive balance indicates a surplus trade value and a negative balance indicates a deficit trade value. "Energy" includes mineral fuels, lubricants, and related material. "Non-Energy Balance" and "Total Merchandise" include foreign exports (i.e., re-exports) and nonmonetary gold and U.S. Department of Defense GrantAid shipments. The "Non-Energy Balance" is calculated by subtracting the "Energy" from the "Total Merchandise Balance."
"Imports" consist of government and nongovernment shipments of merchandise into the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Foreign Trade Zones. They reflect the total arrival from foreign countries of merchandise that immediately entered consumption channels, warehouses, the Foreign Trade Zones, or the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. They exclude shipments between the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. possessions, shipments to U.S. Armed Forces and diplomatic missions abroad for their own use, U.S. goods returned to the United States by its Armed Forces, and in-transit shipments.
Note 2. Non-Combustion Use of Fossil Fuels. Most fossil fuels consumed in the United States and elsewhere are combusted to produce heat and power. However, some are used directly for non-combustion use as construction materials, chemical feedstocks, lubricants, solvents, and waxes. For example, coal tars from coal coke manufacturing are used as feedstock in the chemical industry, for metallurgical work, and in anti-dandruff shampoos; natural gas is used to make nitrogenous fertilizers and as chemical feedstocks; asphalt and road oil are used for roofing and paving; hydrocarbon gas liquids are used to create intermediate products that are used in making plastics; lubricants, including motor oil and greases, are used in vehicles and various industrial processes; petrochemical feedstocks are used to make plastics, synthetic fabrics, and related products.
Coal
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) assumes all non-combustion use of coal comes from the process of manufacturing coal coke. Among the byproducts of the process are "coal tars" or...