The Wall Street Journal reported that the Commerce Department of the United States announced on the 11 day that the deficit of international trade in goods and services in December narrowed to 4%, to $39 billion 930 million, and that in November, the trade deficit was revised to 41 billion 580 million dollars, with a preliminary figure of $40 billion 440 million.

In December, the US trade deficit narrowed to its lowest level since February 2003, mainly because oil prices continued to fall sharply in the global economic downturn, and the import scale of major products such as food, automobiles and footwear declined.

US exports in December dropped from 142 billion 320 million US dollars to US $133 billion 800 million, a decline of 6%, and imports dropped from US $183 billion 910 million to US $173 billion 730 million, a decline of 5.5%.

      美國商務(wù)部稱，12月份美國對主要貿(mào)易伙伴的貿(mào)易逆差有增有減。當(dāng)月美國對中國的貿(mào)易逆差由11月份的230.6億美元收窄至198.8億美元。美國對日本的貿(mào)易逆差從49.7億美元擴(kuò)大至52.7億美元。

The US trade deficit with the euro area expanded from $4 billion 400 million to US $5 billion 670 million; the US trade deficit with Canada narrowed from $3 billion 380 million to US $2 billion 790 million; the US trade deficit with Mexico widened from US $3 billion 520 million to US $4 billion 80 million.