At the height of the trade war, the US deficit falls to a low By AFP

In the midst of war With its major partners, Donald Trump can welcome a further decline in May the US deficit, the lowest since October 2016 through record exports, but it continues to widen compared to last year. 19659004] US goods and services deficit with the rest of the world stood at $ 43.1 billion (-6.6%), with exports up 1.9% to 215.3 billion and imports up 0.4% to 258.4 billion, according to data released Friday by the Department of Commerce.

However, the underlying trend remains unchanged since over the first five months of the year, the deficit has increased by 7.9% compared to the same period of 2017.

And for the only goods, the deficit with China – at the heart of Washington's protectionist offensive – widened by 9.5% between January and May.

In detail, exports of goods increased $ 3.6 billion in May, driven by the civil aerospace industry and the food sector.

Of particular note is the spectacular increase (+ 89.6% to 4.14 billion) in soybean exports due to tensions between Washington and Beijing, which intensified in May.

China is indeed the main outlet for American soybeans. Chinese importers of this commodity have probably increased the volume bought before the entry of customs taxes this Friday.

Moreover, Ian Shepherdson, economist at Pantheon Macro, estimates that soybean exports should increase further in June before a sharp decline in July.

"The deficit is expected to fall again in June before a likely sharp rebound in July when soybean exports plummet," he said in a note.

These data are published then the United States and the United States. China issued Friday "the biggest trade war in economic history", according to the words of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

At 00H00 Washington time (0400 GMT) came into force punitive tariffs of 25% decided by Donald Trump on a total of 34 billion dollars of Chinese imports including automobiles, hard disks or aircraft components.

– Russian Retortions –

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that retaliation had come into effect "immediately" after. The official China News Agency said that "additional duties of 25%" had been imposed on an "equal" amount of US products.

The White House, which made the reduction of the trade deficit a priority , has stepped up protectionist measures since the beginning of the year. It had already imposed taxes of 25% on imports of steel and 10% on those of aluminum from China, the European Union, Canada or Mexico.

Its main partners have deposited Recourse to the World Trade Organization (WTO)

And on Friday, in the wake of the European Union, Canada and Mexico, Russia announced the introduction of surcharges on a series of US products. response to the customs barriers imposed in these sectors.

"Compensation measures are taken in the form of additional customs duties on imports ranging from 25% to 40% of the price of the goods", Russian Minister of the Economy Maxime Orechkine

Donald Trump also imposed the renegotiation of trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (Alena) linking the United States to Canada and Mexico. But discussions are stalled for now.

With the European Union, the tone has gone up a notch since the White House also announced plans to tax the auto sector.

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, must go before the end of July to Washington to try to reach an agreement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "ready" Thursday to negotiate a general drop in taxes on the automobile, responding to a proposal made by Washington to German builders and opening a new scenario to exit the trade conflict.

By country, in May, the deficit of goods with the European Union fell by 10, 2% to 11.9 billion. The deficit with Mexico also fell to 5.8 billion (-3.3%) but rebounded by 24% with Canada to 2.18 billion and 3.9% with China to 32.04 billion.