News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8:30 A.M. EST FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005
BEA 05-25

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: April 2005




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.
Also available: an information section and a brief summary of highlights.
For plain text copies of the tables, please visit the Census web site.

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                           U.S. Census Bureau
                     U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
                                 NEWS
             U.S. Department of Commerce  Washington, D.C. 20230


                         

CB05-81
BEA05-25
FT-900 (05-04)

For information on goods contact:
U.S. Census Bureau:
Nick Orsini    (301) 763-6959
Vanessa Ware   (301) 763-2311

For information on services contact:
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:
Technical: Christopher Bach   (202) 606-9545
Media:     Ralph Stewart      (202) 606-9690


              U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN GOODS AND SERVICES
                              April 2005

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 April exports of $106.4
billion and imports of $163.4 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit
of $57.0 billion, $3.4 billion more than the $53.6 billion in March, revised.
April exports were $3.1 billion more than March exports of $103.4 billion.
April imports were $6.5 billion more than March imports of $156.9 billion.

In April, the goods deficit increased $3.3 billion from March to $62.2 billion,
and the services surplus was virtually unchanged at $5.3 billion.  Exports of
goods increased $3.0 billion to $74.5 billion, and imports of goods increased
$6.3 billion to $136.7 billion.  Exports of services increased $0.1 billion to
$31.9 billion, and imports of services increased $0.1 billion to $26.6 billion.

In April, the goods and services deficit was up $8.6 billion from April 2004.
Exports were up $12.0 billion, or 12.7 percent, and imports were up $20.5 billion,
or 14.4 percent.

Goods

The March to April change in exports of goods reflected increases in capital
goods ($1.6 billion); industrial supplies and materials ($0.9 billion); other
goods ($0.3 billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.2 billion);
and foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.2 billion).  A decrease occurred in
consumer goods ($0.1 billion).

The March to April change in imports of goods reflected increases in capital
goods ($2.3 billion); industrial supplies and materials ($1.8 billion); consumer
goods ($1.8 billion); other goods ($0.3 billion); and automotive vehicles, parts,
and engines ($0.2 billion). Foods, feeds, and beverages were virtually
unchanged.

The April 2004 to April 2005 change in exports of goods reflected increases in
capital goods ($3.3 billion); industrial supplies and materials ($3.2 billion);
consumer goods ($0.8 billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and engines
($0.6 billion); other goods ($0.3 billion); and foods, feeds, and beverages
($0.3 billion).

The April 2004 to April 2005 change in imports of goods reflected increases in
industrial supplies and materials ($10.7 billion); capital goods ($3.9 billion);
consumer goods ($2.5 billion); other goods ($0.5 billion); and foods, feeds, and
beverages ($0.5 billion).  A decrease occurred in automotive vehicles, parts,
and engines ($0.3 billion).

Services

Services exports increased $0.1 billion from March to April.  Increases in travel
and other private services (which includes items such as business, professional,
and technical services, insurance services, and financial services) were partly
offset by a decrease in transfers under U.S. military sales contracts.  Changes
in the other categories of services exports were small.

Services imports increased $0.1 billion from March to April.  The increase was
more than accounted for by increases in other private services and travel.
Changes in the other categories of services imports were small.

From April 2004 to April 2005, services exports increased $3.6 billion.  The
largest increases were in other private services ($1.2 billion), royalties and
license fees ($0.9 billion), and travel ($0.7 billion).

From April 2004 to April 2005, services imports increased $2.7 billion.  The
largest increases were in other private services ($1.0 billion) and other
transportation, which includes freight and port services ($0.6 billion).

Goods and Services Moving Average

For the three months ending in April, exports of goods and services averaged
$103.8 billion, while imports of goods and services averaged $160.7 billion,
resulting in an average trade deficit of $56.9 billion.  For the three months
ending in March, the average trade deficit was $57.3 billion, reflecting average
exports of $102.6 billion and average imports of $159.8 billion.

Selected Not Seasonally Adjusted Goods Details

The April figures showed surpluses, in billions of dollars, with Hong Kong
$0.9 (for March $0.9), Australia $0.7 ($0.8), Singapore $0.3 ($0.9), and Egypt
$0.1 ($0.1).  Deficits were recorded, in billions of dollars, with China $14.7
($12.9), Europe $11.8 ($10.9), the European Union $9.3 ($9.3), Japan $7.2 ($7.8),
OPEC $7.1 ($6.6), Canada $5.4 ($5.0), Mexico $4.4 ($4.3), Korea $1.3 ($1.3),
Brazil $0.8 ($0.7), and Taiwan $0.7 ($0.7).

Advanced technology products (ATP) exports were $18.7 billion in April and
imports were $20.9 billion, resulting in a deficit of $2.2 billion.  April
exports were $0.8 billion less than the $19.5 billion in March, while imports
were $0.1 billion less than the $21.0 billion in March.

Revisions

Goods carry-over in April was $0.2 billion (0.3 percent) for exports and $0.8
billion (0.6 percent) for imports.  For March, revised export carry-over was
virtually zero, revised down from $0.1 billion (0.2 percent).  For March,
revised import carry-over was $0.2 billion (0.1 percent), revised down from
$1.0 billion (0.7 percent).

Goods and services exports and imports for all months shown in this release
reflect the incorporation of annual revisions to the goods and services series
in the U.S. international transactions accounts.  See the "Notice" in this
release for a description of major revisions to goods and services exports and
imports.


                             NOTICE

In this release and the accompanying "U.S. International Trade in Goods and
Services: Annual Revision for 2004", the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau
of Economic Analysis (BEA) are jointly publishing revised data on U.S. trade in
goods for 2002-2004 and the first three months of 2005 and revised data on
services for 1992-2004 and the first three months of 2005.

Goods

The 2004 not seasonally adjusted Census-basis goods data were revised to eliminate
monthly data that arrived too late for inclusion in the month of transaction but
that were included, initially, in the month in which the data were received.  In
addition, corrections were made to previously published data.  Once the
redistributions of data to the proper month of transaction and corrections were
completed, factors for seasonal adjustments and trading day adjustments were
recomputed and the seasonally adjusted current-dollar series were revised for
2002-2004 and the first three months of 2005.  Similar changes were made to the
chain-weighted dollar series.

Services

The services estimates were revised for 1992-2004 and the first three months of
2005.  The revisions resulted from the incorporation of results from BEA's annual
and quarterly surveys and from other newly available and updated source data.
Revisions from these sources have an impact mostly on receipts and payments for
2002-2004 and the first three months of 2005.

Beginning with 2004, estimates of major types of other private services
transactions are based on quarterly rather than annual BEA surveys.  BEA has
instituted a program of quarterly surveys to better capture movements of large
and volatile categories of transactions, as well as to improve the coverage of
transactions.  In addition, estimates of medical services payments, a component
of other private services, are introduced for 1992-2004 and the first three
months of 2005.