The gap between what America buys from abroad and what it sells to other countries, was 5.6% greater than the February gap of $70.5 billion. Imports rose 6.3% to $274.5 billion while exports increased 6.6% to $200 billion. The US imports so much more than it exports that in dollar terms, the rise in imports was greater. The politically sensitive trade deficit with China rose 11.6% to $27.7 billion which, as usual, was the largest deficit with any single country. Through the first three months of this year, the US trade deficit totals $212.8 billion, up 64.2% from the deficit during the same period last month, a time when the US economy was essentially shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. The US economy is recovering much faster than the rest of the world and that is playing out in trade numbers as the gap widens. Americans are starting to spend again, while US exporters are facing sluggish overseas demand in nations slower to recover.
Analysts believe that President Joe Biden is proceeding with caution because reversing all of Trump’s policies could heighten risks for a Democrat who is close to unions. Organized labor has long complained about America’s pre-Trump free trade policies. For March, America’s surplus in services trade, items such as airline flights and consulting fees, shrank to new decade low of $17.1 billion, a drop that analysts blamed on COVID-19 restrictions that have limited tourism. Normally, the United States is able to reduce its overall deficit by a larger amount thanks to larger surpluses in services trade. The deficit in goods totaled a record $91.6 billion in March, up from a March goods deficit of $87.9 billion.