MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US March trade deficit up but 2007 first quarter is down 5.7%

The United States trade deficit widened by more than expected in March, as higher oil and petrol prices sent imports to the second-highest level on record.

The trade gap grew 10.6% compared with February to 63.9 billion US dollars according to figures from the Commerce Department. Import price figures for April were also released, showing a larger-than-expected 1.3% rise. Higher oil and petrol prices were also been blamed for the rise in the import price figure from the Labor Department. Record imports of food, beverages, animal feed and consumer goods also helped to widen the overall trade gap. But the US trade deficit with China narrowed by 6.4% to 17.2 billion with exports from that country falling to their lowest level for almost a year. The weak dollar was good news for exporters, and figures show sales to Canada and the European Union hit record levels. Despite the large deficit in March, the trade deficit for the first three months of the year was 180.7 billion, 5.7% below the figure for the first quarter of 2006.