The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell slightly to $73.3 billion in June as America imported fewer foreign computers and pharmaceuticals in the month.
Imports dropped 1.8 percent from the previous month, to $388 billion, though imports from Mexico, Vietnam and South Korea were at record levels.
U.S. exports also fell slightly from a busy month in May, according to data the Commerce Department released on Tuesday. Exports dropped 0.9 percent in the month, to $314.7 billion, as petroleum exports fell back from a historical high the prior month.
The combination decreased the monthly trade deficit, the gap between what the United States imports and what it exports. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell 5.6 percent from the prior month.
But both exports and imports of services hit record levels in June. Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG U.S., said that services exports had picked up in part because of increased tourism to the United States — what she called a “World Cup effect.”
“That’s considered an export, along with their purchases of ranch dressing,” she joked.
Ms. Swonk said that imports had actually been relatively strong in June, as companies tried to make foreign purchases ahead of a new round of tariffs. But the trade deficit had been held down in part because of large gold exports, she said, which have tended to fluctuate month to month.
The Trump administration has tried to narrow the trade deficit, which it sees as a sign of America’s manufacturing weakness, with steep tariffs on foreign goods. On July 24, it imposed a new round of duties on more than 80 countries, an effort to rebuild the tariffs that the Supreme Court overturned earlier this year.
Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit is down significantly: about 34 percent compared with the first six months of last year. But that is largely because of the enormous spike in imports that the United States saw in the first few months of President Trump’s second stint in the White House, as companies tried to bring in more goods before his initial round of tariffs went into effect.
By other measures, the trade deficit is down a little from the pre-Trump era, but not a lot.
For example, the monthly trade deficit in goods and services has been $69 billion on average in the 17 months since Mr. Trump returned to the White House. That’s down about 6 percent from the monthly average in the 17 months before his second term began.
“For the record, the trade deficit that President Trump vowed to extinguish was $79.8 billion in November 2024 when he was elected for another term, and is still $73.3 billion in today’s figures for June 2026,” said Christopher Rupkey, the chief economist at FWDBONDS LLC. Imports of goods from China had fallen from pre-Trump levels, but risen from Malaysia, Vietnam and Mexico, he said.
Since Mr. Trump took office, imports of some goods have fallen, but demand has been strong for foreign chips needed to fill data centers, medicines and other goods. Many of the products needed for data centers, like expensive foreign chips, have been exempt from tariffs since last April.
The war in Iran has also affected trade in recent months, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz scrambled supply chains for oil fertilizer, product packaging and helium and boosted U.S. exports of petroleum.
The value of U.S. oil exports surged in May, along with the higher price of oil. But in June, the price of oil dipped as the Strait of Hormuz reopened, lowering the value of U.S. oil exports. Since then, fighting has intermittently resumed.
The World Trade Organization said last week that the war’s disruptions were likely to weigh on growth more in the second quarter. Global trade had proved resilient in the first quarter of the year, as a surge in the trade of electronic components needed for artificial intelligence offset some of the drag of the war, it said.
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