News Release

BEA 04-07

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: December 2003




The first two pages of this release are shown in plain text below.
A
PDF version of the entire release is also available and the tables from this release are available in an XLS spreadsheet.
For plain text copies of the tables, please visit the Census web site.

                         United States Department of
                               COMMERCE NEWS
                           Washington, D.C. 20230


                                ECONOMICS
                                   AND
                               STATISTICS
                              ADMINISTRATION
                               ------------

                             U.S. Census Bureau
                      U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis


This release contains sensitive economic
data not to be released before 8:30 a.m. Friday,
February 13, 2004

CB-04-25   Press Copy
BEA-04-07
FT-900 (03-12)

For information on goods contact:
U.S. Census Bureau:
Haydn R. Mearkle  (301) 763-2246
Nick Orsini       (301) 763-2311

For information on services contact:
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:
Technical:  Christopher Bach  (202) 606-9545
Media:      Larry Moran       (202) 606-2649



                    U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN GOODS AND SERVICES
                                     December 2003


Goods and Services

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the
Department of Commerce, announced today that total December  exports of $90.4
billion and imports of $132.8 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit
of $42.5 billion, $4.1 billion more than the $38.4 billion in November, revised.
December exports were $0.2 billion less than November exports of $90.6 billion.
December imports were $3.9 billion more than November imports of $128.9 billion.

In December, the goods deficit increased $4.2 billion from November to $48.2
billion, and the services surplus increased $0.1 billion to $5.7 billion.
Exports of goods decreased $0.8 billion to $62.9 billion, and imports of goods
increased $3.4 billion to $111.1 billion.  Exports of services increased to
$27.4 billion from $26.8 billion, and imports of services increased to $21.7
billion from $21.3 billion.

In December, the goods and services deficit was up $0.1 billion from December
2002.  Exports were up $9.3 billion, or 11.5 percent, and imports were up
$9.4 billion, or 7.7 percent.


Goods

The November to December change in exports of goods reflected decreases in
capital goods ($1.2 billion); foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.3 billion);
and consumer goods ($0.2 billion).  Increases occurred in industrial supplies
and materials ($0.6 billion) and automotive vehicles, parts, and engines
($0.3 billion).  Other goods were virtually unchanged.

The November to December change in imports of goods reflected increases in
industrial supplies and materials ($1.3 billion); capital goods ($1.2
billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.5 billion); consumer
goods ($0.4 billion); and foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.1 billion).
Other goods were virtually unchanged.

The December 2002 to December 2003 change in exports of goods reflected
increases in capital goods ($3.5 billion); industrial supplies and materials
($1.6 billion); consumer goods ($0.9 billion); foods, feeds, and beverages
($0.6 billion); and automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.5 billion).
A decrease occurred in other goods ($0.1 billion).

The December 2002 to December 2003 change in imports of goods reflected
increases in industrial supplies and materials ($2.7 billion); capital goods
($2.2 billion); consumer goods ($1.7 billion); automotive vehicles, parts,
and engines ($1.0 billion); and foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.4 billion).
A decrease occurred in other goods ($0.1 billion).


Services

Services exports increased $0.6 billion from November to December.  The
increase was mostly accounted for by increases in travel and passenger fares.

Services imports increased $0.5 billion from November to December.  The increase
was mostly accounted for by increases in travel and other transportation (which
includes freight and port services).  Changes in the other categories of services
imports were small.

From December 2002 to December 2003, services exports increased $2.1 billion.
The largest increases were in other private services ($0.9 billion),which
includes items such as business, professional, and technical services, insurance
services, and financial services, travel ($0.5 billion), and royalties and
license fees ($0.4 billion).

From December 2002 to December 2003, services imports increased $1.6 billion.
The largest increases were in other private services ($0.5 billion), other
transportation ($0.4 billion), and direct defense expenditures ($0.3 billion).


Goods and Services Moving Average

For the three months ending in December, exports of goods and services averaged
$89.7 billion, while imports of goods and services averaged $130.5 billion,
resulting in an average trade deficit of $40.8 billion.  For the three months
ending in November, the average trade deficit was $40.4 billion, reflecting
average exports of $88.1 billion and average imports of $128.5 billion.


Selected Not Seasonally Adjusted Goods Details

The December figures showed surpluses, in billions of dollars, with Hong Kong
$0.7 (for November $0.5), Australia $0.5 ($0.5), and Egypt $0.1 ($0.1).
Deficits were recorded, in billions of dollars, with Western Europe $11.1
($7.8), China $9.9 ($10.8), Japan $5.7 ($5.7), OPEC $4.6 ($3.9), Canada $4.4
($4.3), Mexico $3.1 ($3.0), Korea $1.4 ($1.2), Taiwan $0.8 ($1.1), and Brazil
$0.5 ($0.4).

Advanced technology products (ATP) exports were $16.7 billion in December and
imports were $20.1 billion, resulting in a deficit of $3.4 billion.  December
exports were virtually the same as the $16.7 billion in November, while imports
were $1.5 billion more than the $18.6 billion in November.

Revisions

Goods carry-over in December was $0.4 billion (0.6 percent) for exports and
$1.3 billion (1.2 percent) for imports.  For November, revised export carry-over
was $0.2 billion (0.4 percent), revised down from $0.5 billion (0.7 percent).
For November, revised import carry-over was $0.1 billion (0.1 percent), revised
down from $0.8 billion (0.8 percent).

The seasonally adjusted goods data for January through November were also
revised to align the seasonally adjusted months with the annual totals.

Services exports for November were virtually unrevised at $26.8 billion.
Services imports for  November  were virtually unrevised at $21.3 billion.


Annual Summary for 2003

Goods and Services

For 2003, exports of $1,018.6 billion and imports of $1,507.9 billion resulted
in a goods and services deficit of $489.4 billion, $71.3 billion more than the
2002 deficit of $418.0 billion.  For goods, exports were $713.8 billion and
imports were $1,263.2 billion, resulting in a goods deficit of $549.4 billion,
$66.5 billion more than the 2002 deficit of $482.9 billion.  For services,
exports were $304.8 billion and imports were $244.8 billion resulting in a
services surplus of $60.0 billion, $4.8 billion less than the 2002 surplus of
$64.8 billion.

As a percent of U.S. gross domestic product, the goods and services deficit
increased from 4.0 percent in 2002 to 4.5 percent in 2003.

Goods (Census Basis)

For 2003, exports of goods were up $30.9 billion from 2002.  Increases occurred
in industrial supplies and materials of $16.1 billion (primarily organic
chemicals, other petroleum products, nonmonetary gold, raw cotton, and
plastics); consumer goods ($5.5 billion); foods, feeds, and beverages ($5.5
billion); capital goods ($2.5 billion); and automotive vehicles, parts, and
engines ($1.2 billion).  Other goods were virtually unchanged.

For 2003, imports of goods were up $98.3 billion from 2002.  Increases occurred
in industrial supplies and materials of $48.8 billion (primarily crude oil,
natural gas, other petroleum products, and fuel oil); consumer goods ($25.9
billion); capital goods ($12.3 billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and
engines ($6.4 billion); and foods, feeds, and beverages ($6.1 billion).  A
decrease occurred in other goods ($1.2 billion).

Services

For 2003, exports of services were $304.8 billion, up $12.6 billion from 2002.
Increases occurred in other private services ($7.5 billion), which includes
items such as business, professional, and technical services, insurance services,
and financial services; royalties and license fees ($3.9 billion); other
transportation ($2.5 billion), which includes freight and port services; and
transfers under U.S. military sales contracts ($0.8 billion). Decreases occurred
in passenger fares ($1.4 billion) and travel ($0.8 billion).  U.S. Government
miscellaneous services were virtually unchanged.

For 2003, imports of services were $244.8 billion, up $17.4 billion from 2002.
Increases occurred in other private services ($7.0 billion); other transportation
($6.3 billion); direct defense expenditures ($4.5 billion); passenger fares ($0.6
billion); and U.S. Government miscellaneous services ($0.1 billion).  Decreases
occurred in travel ($1.0 billion) and royalties and license fees ($0.1 billion).

For detailed descriptions of the types of transactions included in each of the
services categories, see "Information on Goods and Services" starting on page
26 of this release.