Top ten petroleum product exporters to the U.S. include Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Columbia, and Algeria. The petroleum industry is highly dependent upon information technologies in every aspect of its business operations, including production, maintenance, finance, communications , security, safety, and delivery. Embedded microchips are widely used in the industry's distributed control systems. Y2K could drill down to other U.S. trade vulnerabilities too. More than 50 pe rcent of minerals like platinum, tin, zinc, tungsten, and cobalt come from overseas.
Banking also yields interesting data.
The U.S., with its aggressive regulatory oversight of the financial services industry, accounts for just two of the world's 25 largest banks. An equal number of large banks are Chinese. Japan dominates the world's largest list with eight, while France lays claim to three. Beyond banking, the report underscores how important Japan's Y2K readiness will be for U.S. firms. Japan is this nation's top overseas supplier of machine tools, information technology devices and scientific equipment.