The U.S. Is Heavily Reliant on Imports

U.S. President Donald Trump’s reinstated tariffs have come into force today. Where most of the United States’ trading partners had previously been subject to a minimum 10 percent tariff, that has now been raised for more than 60 countries as well as the EU bloc, with the highest rates imposed on goods from Brazil (50 percent), Syria (41 percent), Laos (40 percent), Myanmar (40 percent), Switzerland (39 percent) and Iraq (35 percent). Earlier this week, Trump also said he would be raising India’s 25 percent tariff to 50 percent unless the country agrees to forgo buying Russian oil, due to take effect as of August 27.

Brazil currently has the highest U.S.-imposed tariff in the world at 50 percent, which marks a stark contrast to the 10 percent Trump announced in April. The increase is largely in response to the prosecution of Trump’s ally, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of organizing a coup after losing the presidential elections to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The tariffs on Brazil include many exemptions, however, and so are unlikely to majorly hurt the Latin American economy which also has strong trade ties with China.

As the following chart shows, the trade surplus the United States has with Brazil reached $7 billion in 2024. This means the U.S. exported more to Brazil than it imported. Among the other countries that the U.S. has a trade surplus with last year were the Netherlands ($54.2 billion), Hong Kong ($21.9 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($19.6 billion), Australia ($17.9 billion) and the United Kingdom ($11.4 billion).

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the U.S. had a global trade deficit in 2024 of $1.44 trillion. The countries with whom the U.S. had the largest trade deficits with last year were China ($-295.5 billion), Mexico ($-171.5 billion), Vietnam (-$123.5 billion), Ireland (-86.5 billion) and Germany ($-84.7 billion). As a group, the European Union was in second place after China ($-235.9 billion). This means the U.S. imported more goods from these economies in 2024 than it exported to them.