High Oil Prices Help Widen U.S. Trade Deficit

In March, the trade deficit rose in March as surging oil and commodity prices drove up the country's import bill.

But the trade gap with China narrowed on a pickup in U.S. exports to the Asian economic superpower, Commerce Department data showed.

The country's trade deficit rose to $48.2 billion in March, up from $45.4 billion in February.

More than half of a $10.4 billion surge in imports came from oil and oil products, as crude prices shot up on the back of turbulence in oil-producing Arab countries.

A $7.7 billion rise in exports included a $1.6 billion increase in the U.S. sales abroad of cars, trucks and other automotive industry products.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011