U.S. reissues August trade data, trade deficit narrows significantly to $596 billion, gold imports plummet.

After the federal government shutdown led to a delay in data release, the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday showed a significant narrowing of the U.S. trade deficit in August. With a series of global tariffs announced by President Trump officially taking effect in August, U.S. imports plunged, leading to a decrease in the trade gap for the month. The data showed that the U.S. goods and services trade deficit in August decreased by nearly 24% from the July level, falling to $59.6 billion, much better than the market's previous expectations of $60.4 billion. Due to the government shutdown, the report, originally scheduled for release on October 7th, was delayed until this week; as for the September trade data originally scheduled for release on November 4th, the new release date is still undecided. Looking at the breakdown, total imports in August dropped by 5.1%, marking the largest decrease in four months, while exports increased slightly. Since these figures have not been adjusted for inflation, they primarily reflect changes in trade flows. In the previous month of July, the trade deficit had significantly widened as businesses accelerated their stockpiling of goods ahead of the formal implementation of the "reciprocal tariffs" announced in April but delayed. With many countries racing to reach agreements with the United States, most of the tariffs were eventually implemented in August, causing sharp fluctuations in the trade data for that month. These sharp monthly fluctuations in trade also transmitted to U.S. economic indicators, such as GDP. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model shows that net exports had a positive impact of 0.57 percentage points on third-quarter GDP. The Department of Commerce pointed out that the main reason for the decrease in imports in August was a significant reduction in non-monetary gold imports, directly related to the substantial increase in tariffs on Swiss gold products by the United States. Switzerland is one of the world's largest gold exporting countries. The tariff adjustment led to a significant narrowing of the trade deficit with Switzerland for the U.S., and the two countries have now reached an agreement to reduce import taxes on gold. In addition, imports of capital goods by the U.S. in that month also decreased, including computer parts and communication equipment. After adjusting for inflation, the U.S. goods trade deficit in August narrowed to $83.7 billion, the smallest since the end of 2023. The report also showed that the U.S. goods trade deficit with China expanded to its highest level since April, while the deficit with Mexico slightly narrowed, and the deficit with Canada significantly decreased.