The drop in the trade gap to $63.9 billion could be hailed as a win for President Donald Trump who made an aggressive trade strategy with China a hallmark of his first term in office. The "phase one" trade agreement reached early this year included commitments from Beijing to buy huge amounts of US crops. Total US exports in September rose to $176.4 billion, and though imports also rose, to $240.2 billion, the increase was minimal, according to the Commerce Department data. And the data also showed that the US trade gap with China dropped by $2.1 billion in the month to $24.3 billion. Car imports surged by $2.4 billion in the month, but cell phone purchases fell by nearly the same amount, according to the report.

Source: Mint November 04, 2020 14:15 UTC