By Chuang Peck Ming

THE twin gap persists. We are talking of Singapore's trade deficits with the United States, in not just goods but also services.

Singapore, known for exporting its way to prosperity, imported US$9.01 billion (S$0.37billion) in services from the US last year - more than double what it shipped out (US$4.17 billion) to the US, according to figures released recently by the US Department of Commerce. In 2007, the respective figures were US$8.29 billion and US$3.87 billion.

Trade in services between the two trading partners - in financial services, transportation, education, business consultancy, technology, films - has expanded. So has their trade balance, with exports from the smaller partner falling further behind its imports.

A decade ago, in 1998, when US-Singapore trade in services was valued at US$5.7 billion, Singapore's deficit was only US$1.94 billion. With the trade ballooning to US$13 billion last year, the deficit widened to almost US$5 billion. And the gap has grown even as Singapore pushes for services to play a bigger role in its economy. Singapore is also buying more goods - like iPhones, weapons, airplanes and drugs - than it sells to the US, still the world's biggest market despite the emergence of China.

The US Census Bureau reported in March that the US shipped US$28.81 billion in goods to Singapore in 2008, up from US$26.28 billion in 2007.

But made-in-Singapore products that landed in the US at the same time amounted to only slightly over half (US$15.15 billion) of the US exports. That's down from US$17.77 billion in 2007. US consumers cut back on spending last year - especially after August, when the impact of the sub-prime crisis really hit.

Thus Singapore's trade deficit in goods jumped from US$7.89 billion in 2007 to US$12.93 billion, making the Republic among the few US trading partners in that position.

The US is in persistent trade deficit in goods with most of its trading partners. With services, on the other hand, the US has historically posted trade surpluses. Last year, it chalked up an overall surplus of US$161.4 billion in services, up 15 per cent from 2007.

Europe, led by the UK, remained the US's largest market for its services, followed by the Asia-Pacific region. In the latter, Singapore was a bigger market than Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. But compared to Singapore, the US exported more services to Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and India in Asia-Pacific.

Among US receipts from its export of services to Singapore in 2008, royalties and licence fees (US$3.12 billion), as well as business, professional and technical services (US$3.17 billion), were the biggest items.

This article was first published in The Business Times.