Many of the most serious economic problems facing the U.S. today are the result of the trade deficits of the past 2½ decades which exploded from $96.2 billion in 1996 to $708 billion in 2007, equivalent to the output (value-added) of 6.4 million industrial workers. Nor are they disappearing. In February, 2008, the trade deficit amounted to $62.3 billion and the decline in manufacturing employment was 52,000.

The U.S. automotive company General Motors is reporting its largest annual loss.

The Commerce Department reported that American Trade deficit sharply decreased to $58.5 billion, as the export figures reached the highest records in April. The decrease totaled to a 6.2 percent compared to March figures.

Indias trade deficit nearly doubled in April, the first month of the financial year, from a year ago as costs for imported oil jumped, the government said in a statement Sunday, June 3rd.

At a Washington conference Wednesday on economic relations between China and the United States, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said a market-determined, more flexible exchange rate of the yuan is very much in China's interest. VOA's Barry Wood reports Paulson also discussed some of the financial issues U.S. and Chinese negotiators will be discussing later this month.

Changes in exchange rates:
· make little difference to a firm's decision to start or stop exporting
· make no difference at all to level of exports of multi-national firms
· make some difference to domestic UK firms - but have modest impact on exports.