Avoid the traffic... take the Ferry to Martha's Vineyard.
Avoid the traffic... take the Ferry to Martha's Vineyard.
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade deficit, after worsening for three straight months, suddenly shrank by 23 percent as demand for foreign cars, computers and other consumer goods decreased sharply.
But in a worrisome sign, the U.S. deficit with China for the first time surpassed the imbalance with Japan. Many analysts predicted this trend would continue for the next several years as China supplants Japan as America's biggest trade headache.
The Commerce Department report yesterday showed that the June deficit narrowed to $8.11 billion following a revised May imbalance of $10.55 billion.
The Clinton administration, accused by both Bob Dole and Ross Perot of pursuing wrongheaded trade policies, was quick to claim credit for the better-than-expected June showing.
"We're making progress on all fronts," said Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor. "We're growing jobs, we're growing our standard of living, we're competing in world markets."
Through the first six months of this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $105.2 billion, slightly worse than 1995's deficit of $105.1 billion, the poorest showing in six years.
But Joseph Stiglitz, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said that the deficit represents just 1.4 percent of the total economy at present, half of what it was at its peak in the Reagan administration.
The Dole campaign, which hopes to make trade an election issue, was not convinced by this argument.
"Trade is a glaring deficiency in Clinton's record which goes to the heart of middle-class anxiety in this country," said Robert Lighthizer, a deputy U.S. trade representative in the Reagan administration who is serving as a Dole policy adviser.
| -Top- | -Home- | -Digest- | -Index- | -Staff- |  |