WASHINGTON, May 13 - The U.S. trade deficit widened in March to its second highest level on record, as a sharp rise in oil prices ahead of the war in Iraq boosted the value of U.S. crude petroleum imports to a record high, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday. March imports from OPEC nations were a record $6.5 billion, pushing the U.S. trade deficit with those countries to an additional record of $5.0 billion.
The overall trade gap was $43.5 billion, up 7.6 percent from February and well above expectations for March. Analysts had pegged the latest monthly figures on average at $40.8 billion. The widening trade gap also reflects a jump in overall imports to $126.30 billion, which was second only to the record of September 2000 record of $126.33 billion.//