WASHINGTON - China was one of the fastest growing markets for US manufactured and agricultural goods produced across the nation, according to a report released by the US-China Business Council (USCBC) on Wednesday.

"Exports to China are an essential part of the US economy. China is our third-largest export market and is growing faster than many of our other major destinations for American manufactured goods and farm products," USCBC President John Frisbie said when commenting on the leading trade organization' s annual US State Exports to China report.

"China ranks behind only our two immediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Over the last decade we have seen exports to China rise from $16.2 billion to $91.9 billion -- a 468 percent increase."  He said.

Frisbie noted that large American companies are not the only ones benefiting from this trade between the US and China. China is now the third-largest export market from American small- and medium-sized companies, too.

"American companies of all sizes are sending computers, electronics, agricultural products, chemicals, transportation equipment, and machinery to an ever growing consumer and business marketplace in China," Frisbie added.

The report finds that nearly half of the 50 US states exported more than $1 billion worth of goods to China in 2010 - more than three times the number of states that did so just five years ago.

Thirty states now count China as one of their top three export markets and forty-seven states have registered at least triple-digit growth to China since 2000, said the report.