Machines Italia

Now, says Perez, deputy assistant secretary for manufacturing in the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, the competition is overseas. As a result, exports are "increasingly important to our economic health and to our growth."

In 2011, U.S. exports totaled a record $2.1 trillion and represented more than 50% of the economic growth of the United States, Perez told manufacturers at the "Fast Forward: Strategies for Solving Manufacturers' Most Challenging Problems" conference in Plymouth, Mich. The conference was sponsored by IndustryWeek and the Italian Trade Commission. He said exports supported 10 million jobs in the United States.

In Michigan, for example, exports last year were $51 billion and 93% were manufactured products. "There were $4,800 of exports for every man, woman and child in this state," Perez noted.

But the United States still lags other countries in terms of how its exports relate to national GDP. While exports represented 13.8% of U.S. GDP in 2011, Perez said, Canada's exports were 30% of its GDP and Germany's exports were 50% of GDP.

"Imagine what our economy and our employment figures would look like if exports were 15% or 20% of our GDP," Perez said.

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