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Trade rebounded slightly after President Trump’s sweeping global tariffs discouraged foreign countries from doing business with the United States, data released Thursday showed.
Sept. 4, 2025Updated 11:47 a.m. ET
U.S. imports and exports rebounded slightly in July following several months of sluggish trade, as Americans rushed to bring in gold, equipment for A.I. data centers and other foreign products in the month before President Trump’s most punishing tariffs went into effect.
Data from the Commerce Department on Thursday showed that imports of goods and services rose 5.9 percent and exports grew 0.3 percent in July compared with the previous month. Because U.S. imports grew by more than exports did, the trade deficit in goods and services also expanded, growing by 32.5 percent to $78.3 billion in the month.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods also rose in July, pushed up in part by a surge of gold buying, as traders rushed to get ahead of steep tariffs on Switzerland. The U.S. trade deficit with Switzerland swelled by $7.6 billion, while the trade deficit with China grew $5.3 billion from the previous month. On a year-over-year basis, U.S. imports of goods and services from China were down by about a third in the second quarter of the year.
U.S. Trade Deficit in Goods
U.S. imports of cars fell, weighed down by a 25 percent tariff on foreign vehicles. Imports of pharmaceuticals also declined slightly in July following months of intense stockpiling meant to get ahead of coming tariffs.
Matthew Martin, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, said that while imports bounced back in July, more than half of the increase was due to foreign gold-buying as investors sought a haven for their investments. U.S. imports linked to A.I. and data centers, like computers and semiconductors, continued to be resilient, he added.
