Trade deficit expands after three-month decline

The United States’ deficit in goods and services trade climbed 7.4 percent in June after narrowing to its lowest level in 18 months in May.    The U.S. trade deficit expanded in June after three-consecutive monthly declines that brought the deficit to its lowest level since October 2016.
   The deficit in goods and services trade climbed 7.4 percent to $46.3 billion for the month thanks to a combination of growth in exports and declining import volumes, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.
   The June figures followed revised drops of 18.2 percent in March, 2.4 percent in April and 6.4 percent in May that were preceded by six straight months of growth.
   U.S. exports slipped 0.7 percent in June to reach $213.8 billion, while the nation’s imports ticked up 0.6 percent to $260.2 billion.
   Prior to the May revision, which pegged the trade deficit at $43.2 billion rather than $43.1 billion as previously reported, economists polled by Reuters had projected the trade deficit to increased to $46.5 billion in June.
   Through the first six months of 2018, the U.S. trade deficit has grown 7.2 percent to $19.6 billion, with exports up 9 percent and imports up 8.6 percent compared with the first half of 2017.
   The three-month moving average of the goods and services deficit, however, slipped 0.7 percent to $45.2 billion for the three months ending in June, with average exports increasing 0.5 percent to $213.5 billion and average imports up 0.3 percent to $258.7 billion, according to BEA.
   And on a year-over-year basis, the three-month average goods and services deficit is still down 0.9 percent from the same 2017 period, as exports and imports have increased $20.2 billion (10.5 percent) and $19.9 billion (8.3 percent), respectively.
   The latest trade deficit figures were released on the same day that China vowed to retaliate should the United States follow through with recent threats to impose tariffs against another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The announcement from Beijing came shortly after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative confirmed that President Donald Trump asked the agency to consider whether to raise tariffs pegged for those products from 10 percent to 25 percent.
   BEA said the U.S. deficit with China grew 1.6 percent to $32.5 billion in June compared with the previous month, even as President Donald Trump and his administration reportedly continued talks with the Chinese government to reduce the bilateral trade imbalance.