US trade deficit in goods widens in March

WASHINGTON -- The US trade deficit in goods widened to 71.4 billion US dollars in March, up from 70.9 billion dollars in February, the US Census Bureau reported Friday.

Exports of goods increased 1.4 billion dollars to 140.3 billion dollars in March from the previous month, while imports climbed by 2 billion dollars to 211.7 billion dollars, according to the bureau.

Analysts said the increase in the trade deficit in March could be a slight drag on economic growth in the first quarter, which expanded at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the Commerce Department's first estimate.

While the Trump administration has vowed to reduce the US trade deficit by slapping tariffs against imports, economists have argued that trade balances are mostly driven by macroeconomic factors, not tariffs.

The evolution of bilateral balances over the past two decades has been, "to a significant extent," driven by macroeconomic forces, which include fiscal policy, demographics and domestic demand, economists with the International Monetary Fund said in a research last month.

The economists warned that a sharp increase in tariffs would create a "ripple effect" in an integrated global trade system and undermine the world economy.

"We find that increases in tariffs would particularly hurt output, jobs, and productivity, not only for those economies directly imposing and facing them, but also for other countries up and down the value chains," they said.