Washington ? The U.S. trade deficit widened in March to $43.5 billion, the second-highest on record, as imports of foreign-made industrial supplies rose to a monthly high.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the trade gap grew by 7.6 percent in March from February’s deficit of $40.4 billion.

Although exports went up for the third month in a row in March, imports rose nearly five times faster, leading to a bloated trade deficit that was second only to the record deficit of $44.9 billion produced in December.

Economists were expecting the deficit to get bigger in March but not as much as it did. Economists were forecasting the trade imbalance to reach $41 billion.

To combat the trade deficit, the Bush administration says the United States should seek to boost American exports by attacking foreign trade barriers, rather than raising barriers to imports coming into the country.