Stefan Mileschin

US companies are expected to see a boom in home grown IT exports as it starts to get more expensive to make such products in China.

More than 85 percent of US high-tech executives polled said the Obama administration was somewhat or very likely to meet its goal of doubling IT exports by 2015. Only 40 percent thought this was possible two years ago after the export target was set.

The survey was conducted by IDC Manufacturing Insights for United Parcel Service (UPS).

Ken Rankin, high-tech marketing director at UPS in Atlanta, said that the reason for the change was an emerging middle class that have more disposable income and a heavy appetite for technology products like smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Scott Davis, UPS chief executive officer told Reuters that free trade agreements were critical for boosting US exports and the economy and these were making things more lucrative for home grown industry.

For example the free trade agreement between the United States and Panama will soon go into effect, after the Colombian agreement went into force in July and the South Korea pact in March.

This means that 74 percent of companies now expect to export more over the next two years.

High-tech product sales and shipments are expected to grow the most, by 22 percent, in India, the Middle East and Africa, over the next three to five years.

http://news.techeye.net/hardware/us-...-boom-expected