2011 was a relatively good year for US exports.  As Michael Fitzgerald of Latitude News points out, some of the areas where the US still performs well on the global market are not so surprising: airplanes, telecomm, financial services, to name a few.  But would you guess the US is a leader in exporting tripe?  Or whiskey?  Fitzgerald:

The U.S. exported $1.4 billion in alcoholic beverages (excluding beer and wine) through October 2011, and about 60 percent of that was for Tennessee whiskeys, Kentucky bourbons and the like. US whiskey isn’t a match for Scotch yet ($5.5 billion worth of exports in 2010), but it’s up $300 million over 2010 sales through October. And in 2012,free trade agreements with spirits-loving South Korea and Colombia should mean a year to toast for U.S. whiskey makers.

Read about more surprising US exports at Latitude News, here.