U.S. Trade Deficit in Goods Reaches Record High

Despite all efforts by the Trump administration to reign in the country’s trade deficit, the gap between imports to and exports from the United States climbed to a 10-year high in the first half of 2019. According to figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday, the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services declined slightly in June, bringing the total deficit to $316 billion for the first half of 2019, the highest it’s been since 2008. The increase was mainly caused by a historically high deficit in goods trade, which amounted to a record $439 billion, of which $219 billion can be traced back to trade with China alone.

While the U.S. trade deficit continues to climb overall, imports from China have in fact been affected by the ongoing trade war between the two economic superpowers. U.S. goods imports from China dropped by more than $30 billion in the first half of 2019 compared to the previous year.