Tariffs did not and will not eliminate trade deficits.
The Advance Economic Indicators Report for August was a trade disaster.
Advance International Trade in Goods
- The international trade deficit was $132.6 billion in August, up $13.7 billion from $118.9 billion in July.
- Exports of goods for August were $203.4 billion, $3.7 billion more than July exports.
- Imports of goods for August were $336.1 billion, $17.4 billion more than July imports.
Advance Wholesale Inventories
- Wholesale inventories for August, adjusted for seasonal variations and trading day differences, but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $965.7 billion, up 0.7 percent (±0.2 percent) from July 2026, and were up 6.6 percent (±1.1 percent) from August 2025.
- The June 2026 to July 2026 percentage change was unrevised from the preliminary estimate of up 1.3 percent (±0.2 percent).
Advance Retail Inventories
- Retail inventories for August, adjusted for seasonal variations and trading day differences, but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $881.6 billion, up 0.3 percent (±0.2 percent) from July 2026, and were up 4.8 percent (±0.7 percent) from August 2025.
- The June 2026 to July 2026 percentage change was unrevised from up 0.8 percent (±0.2 percent).
Goods Exports and Imports
There is no indication Trump’s tariffs are doing anything other than raising consumer prices.
Related Posts
September 25, 2026: Consumer Sentiment Drops in September to Just Above Record Lows
Republican attitudes decline the most, but from higher levels.
September 25, 2026: Texas Cattle Assn. Complains of ICE, Iowa Farmers Union Endorses Democrats
“ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect.”
September 29, 2026: US Consumer Confidence Plunges to the Lowest Level Since 2014
Views of the present situation and future expectations both declined dramatically.
Well the world thinks it needs dollars so the USA produces and exports them.
If you include that, the deficit is zero.
Producing dollars is not very hard – clickety click another trillion.
Producing cars, phones, steel, etc takes much more effort.
So the USA is profiting big time from the trade!
… or what am I missing?
Yes, the USA is profiting big time but consumers are hurting big time paying higher costs and borrowing to do it. The win-win for consumers is to either lower consumption or move to a place with the same Chinese and foreign goods and no/lower tariffs.
If you’re an investor, you want to invest in those big profiting firms in the USA and take those profits and use them in low trade barrier, low cost countries, live like a king happily ever after.
Congratulation Trump!
Whatever you touch gold turn to lead.
What if there were no tariffs? The trade deficit would be worse, and more Americans would be out of jobs.