The U.S. trade deficit rose sharply in August to hit a 17-month high, driven by an increase in imports of petroleum, gold and chips used for artificial intelligence.
The trade deficit — a measure of the difference between what the country imports and what it exports — grew by 13.7 percent from the previous month to $105.6 billion, the largest monthly total since before Mr. Trump imposed his global tariffs in April of last year.
Imports grew 4.3 percent from the previous month, to a record $420.8 billion. U.S. exports grew 1.4 percent compared with July, hitting $315.2 billion. Because growth in imports outpaced that of exports, the trade deficit widened.
The Trump administration has tried to reduce the trade deficit, which President Trump views as a sign of America’s weak manufacturing sector, by imposing hefty tariffs on everything from toys and steel to drones and auto parts.
But in recent months, the metric has trended stubbornly upward, in part because of the A.I. boom. Companies are importing far more expensive computer chips, most of which are made in Asia, to construct new data centers.
Many economists have also questioned whether tariffs are a good tool for reducing the trade deficit. They argue that the metric is often driven by other macroeconomic forces, like economic growth or government debt.
The monthly trade deficit has moved erratically during the second Trump administration, spiking and plummeting as new tariffs have been introduced, removed and replaced. After Mr. Trump was elected, importers raced to bring in more inventory ahead of tariffs, causing the trade deficit to spike to historic levels in the first few months of Mr. Trump’s term.
After he introduced global tariffs on his so-called Liberation Day last year, imports and the trade deficit fell back. Although most of those tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court in February, the administration drew on other legal authorities to partially replace them.
In July, the administration put a new round of tariffs on more than 80 countries, and it is planning to impose another round of tariffs that could apply to more than 40 countries.
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