Washington (CNN) The US trade deficit shrank for the first time in six years in 2019 as President Donald Trump continued to ramp up his trade war with China.

The deficit in goods and services narrowed by 1.7% to $616.8 billion last year, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Trump has pledged to narrow the deficit and bring manufacturing back to the United States. But the gap between exports and imports is still higher than when he took office. It's the second biggest gap since 2008

Both imports, which Trump has hit with tariffs, and US exports, which have been hurt by other country's retaliatory tariffs, fell in 2019.

That was also true with China specifically, where the President's approach appears to have slowed trade. The goods trade deficit with China fell to $345.6 billion -- the lowest level since 2014.

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