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U.S. trade deficit widens to $105.6B in August as imports jump

Imports rose 4.3% while exports rose 1.4%, but the deficit for the first eight months of 2026 is still down 19.9% from a year earlier, the Census Bureau and BEA said.

Motion Media News Staff

Oct 6, 2026

2 minutes

The glass and wood-slatted facade of the U.S. Census Bureau headquarters buildings in Suitland, Maryland, under a clear blue sky.

Photo: United States Census Bureau / Oficina del Censo de los Estados Unidos (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons (source)

The U.S. deficit in goods and services trade grew by $12.7 billion in August to $105.6 billion, from a revised $92.8 billion in July, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau said in their joint monthly report on Tuesday, Oct. 6. The figures are seasonally adjusted and not adjusted for price changes.

Imports climbed $17.2 billion, or 4.3%, to $420.8 billion. Exports gained $4.5 billion, or 1.4%, to $315.2 billion, the agencies said.

The goods gap drove the change, widening by $12.8 billion to $136.6 billion. The surplus in services trade was little changed at $31.0 billion, up by less than $0.1 billion.

What moved

Goods imports rose to $342.2 billion. On a Census basis, imports of industrial supplies and materials gained $9.1 billion, including $3.3 billion more crude oil and $3.1 billion more nonmonetary gold, according to the release. Capital goods imports rose $6.2 billion, with semiconductors accounting for $2.4 billion of that.

Goods exports rose $4.4 billion to $205.7 billion. Shipments of industrial supplies and materials grew $6.3 billion and capital goods $1.3 billion, including $1.0 billion more in semiconductors. Consumer goods exports fell $2.2 billion, led by a $2.4 billion drop in pharmaceutical preparations.

Adjusted for inflation, in 2017 dollars, the goods deficit grew 8.2% to $114.7 billion, compared with an 11.1% rise in nominal terms on a Census basis, the agencies said.

The year so far

For January through August, the combined deficit was $138.2 billion, or 19.9%, smaller than in the same months of 2025, according to the report. Exports over that span were up $267.7 billion, or 11.8%, and imports were up $129.5 billion, or 4.4%.

The three-month average deficit rose $9.9 billion to $89.9 billion in August.

By country, the largest goods deficits in August were with Mexico at $27.7 billion, Vietnam at $24.0 billion, Taiwan at $18.3 billion and China at $16.4 billion, followed by the European Union at $11.0 billion. The gap with Canada widened by $4.1 billion to $7.1 billion as imports from Canada rose $4.6 billion. The largest surpluses were with the Netherlands, at $7.7 billion, and South and Central America, at $5.6 billion.

July figures were revised as part of the release, with goods imports revised up $4.4 billion.