The U.S. trade deficit hit a ten-year-high in October.
The U.S. Commerce Department revealed on Thursday that imports outpaced exports by more than 55 billion dollars.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
With U.S. soybean exports dropping further and imports of consumer goods rising to a record high,... the U.S. trade deficit soared to a high not seen in a decade in October.
The trade deficit was up one-point-seven percent on-year,... standing at 55-point-five billion U.S. dollars.
That's the highest since October 2008.
The majority of the deficit came from China and the European Union.
The U.S. trade deficit with China spiked seven-point-one percent to a record 43-point-one billion dollars.
The trade gap with the EU widened a staggering 65-and-a-half percent to a record 17-point-six billion dollars.
Led by shipments of medicine and automobiles,... overall import numbers rose zero-point-two percent to a record 266-point-five billion dollars,... while exports edged down zero-point-one percent to 211 billion.
President Trump campaigned on a pledge to slash America's longstanding trade deficit with the rest of the world by slapping import taxes on steel, aluminum and Chinese goods.
However, the deficit so far this year is running almost eleven-and-a-half percent above January to October of 2017.
However, economists view the trade deficit as the result of a stronger U.S. economy,... as Americans are buying more foreign products.
At the same time, Americans buy more than they produce,... with imports filling the gap.
U.S. exports are also being hurt by the American dollar's role as the world's currency.
With the strong greenback,... comes the rise in prices of U.S. products,... putting American companies at a disadvantage in foreign markets.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.