U.S. FEBRUARY TRADE TO BE REPORTED ON NEW BASIS
  The February monthly merchandise
  trade figures to be reported Tuesday by the Commerce Department
  will be on a new basis reflecting more recent data, so avoiding
  future revisions of the monthly figure, Commerce officials
  said.
      The overall January deficit of 14.8 billion dlrs will be
  revised, but the February figure will be a final one, officials
  said.
      Previously, the initial monthly figure has had to be
  revised in subsequent months because of the time lag between
  the report and the compiling of final estimates on imports and
  exports.
      The reporting of the February trade data was delayed
  several weeks to permit gathering latest figures on imports and
  exports to give a clearer picture of the monthly trade balance.
  

