Tariffs and Trade Policy

Outside fuel, US import prices rose 6.0% in the year to September 2026; without computers and chips too, 3.9%. Theirs rose 22.9%, most in BLS data from 1984.

The order names no buyer. China and India, the top buyers in importers' 2025 UN returns for Russian crude, sold the US $359bn of goods in the year to August.

The US goods deficit reached $136.6bn in August, its widest since March 2025. Of the $53.5bn widening since April, $40.7bn was in the data by July.

Severe starts at 80. No weekday of 2010–2019 reached it. As built at 02:16 UTC on 13 October 2026, 68 weekdays of 2026 had; version 3 read 82.3 for 9 October.

A 10% import surcharge ran from 24 February to 24 July 2026 to fix the payments deficit. The goods deficit: $88.5bn a month before it, $94.4bn during it.

China supplied 7.95% of US goods imports in the year to June 2026, back to its June 2000 level and down from a 21.8% peak. Mexico is at a record 16.7%.

The pre-duty price of Chinese goods has risen 2.1% in dollars since July 2025. Translated back into yuan, the same series fell 3.6% over the same months.

China's share of US goods imports fell from 17.4% to 7.8% since 2022. Total imports rose 4.8% over the same period. Mexico took only 39% of the difference.

May's $23bn one-month widening was the third largest since 1992 and is not seasonal. But the deficit is trending better, not worse — and monthly swings this size …