Trade Deficit Soars To New High

Oil Bill Due To Storms Causes Jump; Deficit With China Increases

(AP) 
The soaring deficit with China has increased calls in Congress for the administration to take action against what critics complain are China's unfair trade practices such as manipulating its currency to gain trade advantages, rampant piracy of American movies and other copyrighted material and state support to the country's textile industry.

On Tuesday, the administration announced that it had reached a three-year agreement with China to limit imports of clothing and textiles, something that the U.S. industry said was desperately needed to halt a surge that began in early January and has already cost thousands of American textile jobs.

The figures for September showed that a series of "safeguard" quotas that the administration has been imposing on various categories of Chinese imports had resulted in a 5.2 percent drop in imports of Chinese clothing and textiles in September, when compared to August. However, these shipments were still up by 50.4 percent for the first nine months of this year, reflecting the surge that had occurred in earlier months before the quotas were imposed.

U.S. purchases of foreign oil rose by 4.4 percent in September with the average price for a barrel of imported crude oil hitting an all-time high of $57.32, up from a $52.65 per barrel average in August.

After Katrina struck, crude oil prices briefly topped $70 per barrel, sending gasoline pump prices over $3 per gallon for a time. However, as Gulf Coast production has come back on line, those prices have moderated although they are still well above levels of a year ago.

The increase in petroleum imports reflected a jump in price. The volume of shipments fell by 9.2 percent during the month, reflecting in part port shutdowns along the Gulf Coast because of the hurricanes.

In addition to the record deficit with China, America's trade imbalance with Canada also set a record, rising to $7.4 billion. America's deficit with the countries of South and Central America also set a record at $4.99 billion.