Through the first three quarters of 2019, the United States' trade deficit has increased by about 5 percent over the same nine months last year, according to new data released Tuesday. That's despite promises from the Trump administration that hiking tariffs and fighting a trade war with China would reduce the trade deficit, which is the gap between the value of goods America imports and exports.
The new federal data shows that the trade deficit actually shrank slightly during the month of September, but even that bit of good news for the administration comes with a dark cloud hanging over it. The trade deficit narrowed slightly because imports declined by 1.7 percent during September, while exports declined by about 0.9 percent during the month, according to the Commerce Department.
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