U.S. Trade Deficit Soars 33% in December Due to Tariff Turmoil

The U.S. trade deficit jumped nearly 33% in December, rising for the second consecutive month to $70.3 billion.

The deficit narrowed in some months of 2025 before increasing over the past three months.

Trade deficits were volatile throughout 2025 as importers responded to President Trump’s shifting tariff announcements, which have upended the global trade landscape but have not significantly dented the U.S. trade deficit — at least so far, Ben Werschkul reported for Yahoo Finance.

Data released last week by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis also provided an annual tally for 2025, showing total trade in goods and services at $901.5 billion.

The total for 2024, the final year of Joe Biden’s presidency, was $903.5 billion.

The new reading came just hours after Trump claimed that trade deficits were already down and predicted that in 2026 the trade balance would “go into positive territory during this year, for the first time in many decades.”

The full effect of tariffs on the trade deficit remains uncertain after the trade gap surged early in 2025, when U.S. companies stocked up on foreign goods ahead of new duties taking effect.

The deficit narrowed in some months of 2025 before increasing over the past three months.

Large swings in gold trading and digital equipment contributed to much of the recent monthly volatility. Imports of telecommunications equipment, for example, increased by $1.3 billion.

“The usual suspects were behind the widening in the trade deficit at the end of last year: gold, pharmaceuticals, and IT equipment,” Capital Economics said in an analysis, adding that the reading leaves its fourth-quarter GDP growth estimate unchanged at 3.4% annualized.