The March 2011 U.S. trade deficit increased $2.8 billion to $48.2 billion. The February 2011 monthly trade deficit was $45.4 billion. $31.3 billion of the March trade deficit is oil related, $8.8 billion more than 1 month ago, and 51.2% of the total goods trade deficit. Services have surplus of $13.9 billion and increased $0.2 billion last month.
In comparison to a year ago, the trade deficit increased $8.7 billion with exports increasing 14.9% and imports increased 16.4%.
Imports were 1.28 times larger than exports for February. In other words, for every dollar we export, we import $1.28 worth of stuff. This is on a Balance of Payments basis.
The United States basically has two major problems with the trade deficit, Chinese goods and Oil imports.
Below are imports vs. exports of goods and services from January 2007 to March 2011. Notice how much larger imports are than exports, but also notice the growth, or rate of change between months of U.S. exports.