If products were made in the United States, would the US cargo ship backlog not matter?

While the dollar amount of U.S. imports is higher than for exports, a social media post's premise that products are not made in the U.S. is not true. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, manufacturing is the country's fifth-largest employment sector with 12.1 million workers who produce goods for domestic use and export.

The U.S. is also the world's second-largest exporter of goods originating the U.S.

The cargo ship backlog that continued into October 2021 concerned not just finished products coming in. Materials used to manufacture products at American factories are imported into the country as well.

At the Port of Los Angeles — North America's busiest container port — top containerized imports in 2020 were products to be used in manufacturing others: auto parts and plastics were the second and fifth imports, respectively. The port's top containerized exports included scrap metal and fabric/raw cotton.