U.S. trade deficit hits record high as businesses, consumers try to get ahead of Trump tariffs

NEW YORK — The U.S. trade deficit soared to a record $140.5 billion in March as consumers and businesses alike tried to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s latest and most sweeping tariffs — with federal data showing an enormous stockpiling of pharmaceutical products.

The deficit — which measures the gap between the value of goods and services the U.S. sells abroad against what it buys — has roughly doubled over the last year. In March 2024, Commerce Department records show, that gap was just under $68.6 billion.

According to federal data released on Tuesday, U.S. exports for goods and services totaled about $278.5 billion in March, while imports climbed to nearly $419 billion. That’s up $0.5 billion and $17.8 billion, respectively, from February trade.

Consumer goods led the imports surge — increasing by $22.5 billion in March. And pharma products in particular climbed $20.9 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis noted, signaling fears about future levies impacting the sector.

“While we had known consumer goods accounted for the bulk of March’s rise, we can now see pharmaceutical products were $20bn higher — almost all of which were imported from Ireland,” a Tuesday note from analysts at Oxford Economics notes. “Uncertainty remains high, and broader signs of front-loading may be visible in coming months.”

Imports are flooding into the U.S. trade wars deepen abroad. Trump has threatened and imposed a series of steep tariffs in recent months — and much of March, in particular, was filled with anticipation and uncertainty leading up to what the president called “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he announced new import taxes on nearly all of America’s trading partners. With the exception of China, higher tariff rates for many countries have since been postponed — but other sweeping levies remain.

The White House insists that new tariffs will help close longstanding trade deficits (the U.S. hasn’t sold the rest of the world more than it’s bought since 1975), reinvigorate manufacturing in America and generate government revenue. But economists are warning of significant consequences for businesses, households and economies worldwide under the levies that Trump has proposed.

These new tariffs are already increasing operating costs for businesses that rely on a global supply chain — which, in turn, will hike prices for a range of goods that consumers buy each day.

The recent surge in imports reflects efforts by companies across the country to bring in foreign goods before more duties kicked in. New orders for manufactured durable goods, for example, jumped 9.2% to $315.7 billion in March, Census Bureau data released last month shows.

March’s trade deficit surpasses the last monthly record of $130.7 billion reported in January — also amid tariff uncertainty after Trump took office, marking a more than $32 billion jump from December.

All of this contributed to shrinking economic growth in the first three months of the year. Last week, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. gross domestic product — or output of goods and services — fell at a 0.3% annual pace from January through March, marking the first drop in three years.

Imports grew at a total 41% pace for that period, its fastest rate since 2020, shaving 5 percentage points off first-quarter growth. But that surge is likely to reverse in the second quarter, removing some weight on GDP.