U.S. Trade Gap Approaches Record

Despite the Clinton administration’s aggressive campaign for trade agreements, America’s trade deficit is worsening and on track toward a record exceeding $150 billion for 1994.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the deficit in November climbed 4.3 percent to $10.53 billion, up from a revised $10.10 billion in October.

U.S. exports of goods and services, helped by a giant surge in sales of commercial airliners, were up 2.2 percent to a record $61.16 billion.

But imports climbed at an even faster pace of 2.5 percent to $71.69 billion, the seventh straight month they have hit a new high. The gain in November reflected in part a higher foreign oil bill and more imports of autos. The trade gap is the difference between imports and exports.

The Clinton administration, which counts among its greatest achievements a round of market-opening trade agreements, blamed the deteriorating trade performance on unequal economic growth rates among America’s major trading partners.

But some private economists contended that major trade barriers, especially in Japan and China, were to blame as well.

Through the first 11 months of 1994, the U.S. deficit in goods was running at an annual rate of $152.5 billion - on track to surpass the record of $152.1 billion set in 1987.

For November, the deficit with Japan dropped by 6.9 percent to $6.19 billion, still the third-highest deficit on record for any country.

The trade gap with Japan is running at an annual rate of $65.6 billion, far ahead of the 1993 record of $59.1 billion.

The deficit with China was $2.89 billion in November, putting the deficit for the year at a record annual rate of $30 billion.