The US trade gap broadened in September as American companies increased their imports of semiconductors, aircraft and petroleum products, the Commerce Department reported today.
Even record exports of US goods and services could not fend off the rising deficit. Export hit their highest level in nearly three years, driven upward by growing international sales of crude oil and transport services.
President Donald Trump has taken an aggressive stance on trade, vowing to reduce bilateral trade deficits, and launching high-stakes talks to renegotiate trade agreements and investigate the practices of foreign trading partners.
The September trade gap rose 1.7 per cent to USD 43.5 billion, in line with analyst expectations, according to the report. So far this year, the US trade deficit is up 9.3 per cent over the same period in 2016.
Exports rose 1.1 per cent to USD 196.8 billion in September, the highest level since December 2014. Services exports also were the highest on record at USD 66.2 billion.
But imports rose 1.2 per cent to USD 240.3 billion, with services like transport also at their highest level on record at USD 44.3 billion.
Crude oil imports by volume fell to their lowest level since October 2015 at 206.8 million barrels -- helping shift the US trade balance with members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to a USD 600 million surplus from an USD 800 million deficit.
The US deficit with China is just under USD 30 billion, while the deficit with Germany expanded USD 1.1 billion to USD 5.9 billion for the latest month, and the US trade gap with India rose by USD 700 million to USD 2.3 billion.
The US recorded a USD 100 million surplus with Canada but a USD 5.1 billion deficit with Mexico, coming amid fraught negotiations to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement.
US exports to Britain were the highest on record at USD 5.5 billion, for an overall surplus of USD 700 million.
Officials said the back-to-back late-summer hurricanes impacted the September trade data, but the distortions could not be isolated or quantified.
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