QUESTION: If you want to sell to the biggest possible market in the world, where do you go?

ANSWER: The United States.

According to a new report by the U.S. Business and Industry Council (USBIC), though, domestic U.S. manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to sell into their own, lucrative home market.

In a report on whe he calls "soaring import penetration," USBIC Research Fellow Alan Tonelson finds that a large, rapidly growing share of U.S. markets for advanced manufacturing products has been "captured by imports."

The report shows that in 2010, imports of high-value manufactured goods (such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and machine tools) took record levels of sales from U.S.-made goods in "108 highly productive and innovative sectors."  Tonelson believes that these large jumps in imports harmed U.S. output and hiring:

"Industries with falling shares of their own home market are industries in serious trouble.  That goes double when their home market is the world’s largest and most competitive.  The sales they have lost go far toward explaining why America’s growth and hiring recoveries continue lagging.”

Click here to read the full report.