Tariffs Aren't Shrinking the U.S. Trade Deficit
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The U.S. trade deficit slipped modestly in 2025, a year in which President Donald Trump upended global commerce by slapping double digit tariffs on imports from most countries.
President Trump on Wednesday touted the decline in U.S. trade deficit ahead of official data showing a small reduction in the country’s overall balance of trade. In a Wednesday night post on Truth Social,
The U.S. trade deficit edged down in 2025, narrowing to $901.5 billion from $903.5 billion in 2024 in a year marked by tariffs.
US trade deficit continued to widen in December after hitting the smallest monthly amount since the 2009 low in October.
Donald Trump’s global trade war has not had (as of yet anyway) the desired effect when it comes to America’s yawning trade deficit. In fact, the gap grew in December to $70.3 billion. This according to data from his own administration.
It’s the smallest trade deficit since June 2009.
Key Takeaways President Donald Trump’s tariff policies did little to shrink the overall 2025 trade deficit.However, deficits did fall with several major U.S. trading partners including Canada, Japan and South Korea,
The issue for Taiwan is that its trade surplus with the US has ballooned in the past two years due to massive demand for chips and servers for use in data centers or artificial intelligence products, items that it specializes in.