The U.S. trade deficit shrank like a puddle in the hot sun in 2008 and 2009 as appetite for imports melted in the recession and Asian export markets grew. With the U.S. economy now improving, the gap is widening again, dashing hopes that the U.S. is anywhere close to rebalancing trade with the rest of the world.

On Apr. 30 the Commerce Dept. announced that the economy grew at an estimated annual rate of 3.2 percent in the first three months of the year, propelled by stronger consumer spending and business investment. The bad news is that a lot of that consumption and investment went for imports. While exports grew at a 5.8 percent rate, imports grew at an annual rate of 8.9 percent. Overall, the trade deficit nicked 0.6 percentage points from the growth rate.

The broadest measure of the trade deficit peaked in 2006 at just over $800 billion, or 6 percent of gross domestic product. (These numbers describe the current account, which includes trade in goods and services as well as cross-border investment income.) By 2009 it was a little more than $400 billion, just under 3 percent of GDP. But by the second half of 2009, the gap had already come off its bottom—rising 18 percent from the second to the fourth quarter. “We would expect [the trade deficit] to grow a little bit faster than the overall economy,” says Ethan Harris, chief economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC).

Read More: – By Peter Coy, Businessweek