(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-10 00:07

Trade has become a key debating point in this year's election campaigns. Republicans including Sen. John McCain contend that President Bush's free trade policies have expanded opportunities for US exports while Democrats contend that Bush has not done enough to protect American workers from unfair foreign competition.

The president last month sent Congress a free trade agreement with Colombia but its consideration has been blocked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who says the deal cannot be approved until the administration reaches agreement with Democrats on policies to soften the economic blows being suffered by Americans.

For the first two three months of this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $715.5 billion, up slightly from last year's imbalance of $708.5 billion, which had been the first decline after the deficit set records for five consecutive years.

Economists believe that the deficit will decline this year and that exports will continue to benefit from a weaker dollar and imports will fall, reflecting the weak US economy, which many analysts believe has already fallen into a recession.

For March, the deficit with Canada, America's biggest trading partner, edged up 0.4 percent to $6.5 billion, while the deficit with the European Union rose by 9.1 percent to $7.5 billion even though US exports to the EU edged up 1.2 percent to a record $24.1 billion. This reflected the boost that American products have gotten as the US dollar fell to a record low against the euro.

The deficit with Japan rose 8.9 percent to $7.5 billion while the imbalance with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries totaled $14.1 billion, an increase of 6.8 percent from February.

   1 2   

   1 2