Imbalance soars to $77.6bn in May as imports outpaced exports, driven by pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
Published On 7 Jul 2026
The United States trade deficit has jumped to $77.6bn in May on rising imports, driven by goods that include pharmaceuticals, mobile phones and semiconductors.
Imports ticked up 3.3 percent from April to $395.3bn while exports fell 3.2 percent to $317.7bn, according to a report released on Tuesday by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau.
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Overall, the trade gap grew by 42.2 percent from the previous month to $77.6bn, marking the biggest jump in a year.
The surge came amid a boom in artificial intelligence spending across the economy. Notably, semiconductor imports jumped by $1.2bn.
In the oil and gas sector, petroleum imports jumped to their highest level on record despite the US-Israel war on Iran. Imports of crude oil increased by $1.5bn.
Imports of automotive parts and engines jumped by $2.2bn. Passenger car imports specifically increased by $1bn. The increases came as carmakers look to move stateside amid heightened pressure from tariffs.
Toyota announced it would invest $3.6bn in expanding its US auto production. The Japanese automaker said it will move production of its Tacoma pick-up truck to a plant in San Antonio, Texas, by 2030.
US President Donald Trump touted the move, calling it “a really big deal”, and said “tariffs at work” in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The US posted its largest trade deficits in May with Vietnam ($20.6bn), Mexico ($20.1bn), Taiwan ($19.4bn), China ($14.5bn) and the European Union ($9.3bn) while its biggest trade surpluses were with the Netherlands ($9.1bn), Hong Kong ($5.6bn), South and Central America ($4.8bn), Australia ($1.9bn) and the United Kingdom ($1.4bn), according to the data.
Neighbouring Canada’s trade surplus widened for the fourth straight month, hitting a four-year high as goods shipped to the US reached their highest level since February 2025, according to Statistics Canada, which also released trade data on Tuesday.
Canada had a trade surplus of 4.24 billion Canadian dollars (US$2.98bn), marking a 0.9 percent increase from the month before.
