What is the trade balance between the US and China?

In all of 2024, the United States had a total trade balance of roughly $582 billion. This total count is likely to change for 2025, but we won't know for certain until the end of the year.

What is the US balance of trade?

The US balance of trade is a simple formula. It is the total amount of exports minus imports. As of August 2025, the total count was -$59.3 billion.

What is the trade balance between the US and Canada?

The final count for trade ends at the start of the new year. For example, people would be able to see the final count of 2023 sometime around the end of December or early January 2024. As of the final count for 2024, the trade was roughly $762 billion.

The U.S. Trade Balance with Every Country

Here's the latest data on the U.S. trade-in-goods surplus and deficits by country.

By Jack Caporal – Updated Feb 24, 2026 at 10:11 PM EST | Fact-checked by Parker Hicks

Key Points

U.S. had a $1.2 trillion goods trade deficit in 2025, similar to previous year.
Top trade deficits for U.S. in 2025: China ($202B), Mexico ($197B), Vietnam ($178B).
Largest U.S. trade surpluses: Netherlands ($61B), UK ($32B), UAE ($24B).

In 2025, the United States had a goods trade deficit with 97 countries and a surplus with 136. Overall, it ran a $1.2 trillion trade-in-goods deficit that year. That's largely in line with 2024, even after a flurry of tariff announcements and dealmaking.

The map and table below show the United States' 2025 goods trade balance -- the difference between its imports and exports.

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The largest trade deficits the United States recorded in 2025 were with China (-$202 billion), Mexico (-$197 billion), Vietnam (-$178 billion), Taiwan (-$147 billion), and Ireland (-$114 billion).

The United States had its largest trade surpluses with the Netherlands ($61 billion), the United Kingdom ($32 billion), the UAE ($24 billion), Brazil ($14 billion), and Belgium ($9 billion).

The U.S. trade balance with Canada

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The United States had a $53 billion goods trade deficit with Canada in 2025. The U.S. has had a trade deficit with Canada for decades, and it has steadily grown. The trade deficit was $8 billion in 1990. That widened to $53 billion in just 10 years. The U.S. trade deficit with Canada peaked in 2022 at $78 billion.

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The U.S. trade balance with Mexico

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The United States had a $197 billion goods trade deficit with Mexico in 2025, a record for the bilateral relationship and the second-largest trade deficit for the United States behind China. The United States last had a trade surplus with Mexico in 1994, of just over $1 billion. The trade deficit has quickly expanded since then.

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The U.S. trade balance with China

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The United States had a $202 billion goods trade deficit with China in 2025. That’s about $130 billion off the peak deficit, which was $418 billion in 2018, and about $90 billion lower than the deficit recorded in 2024. The trade deficit with China has rapidly expanded since 2001, when it joined the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. trade balance with the European Union

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The United States had a $219 billion goods trade deficit with the EU in 2025. The U.S. last had a surplus with the EU, in its current makeup, in 1991. The deficit since then has quickly grown.

The U.S. trade balance with its top trading partners

The top U.S. trading partners in 2025 by total goods value were the EU ($1 trillion), Mexico ($873 billion), Canada ($712 billion), China ($414 billion), and Taiwan ($256 billion).

The graphs below show how trade with those countries and the United States’ next five largest trading partners by total trade net out.

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Do trade deficits matter?

Looking at the data, the questions of why the U.S. runs such a large trade deficit with so many countries and whether trade deficits matter likely come up. The answers to those questions are subject to debate, but there are some big-picture explanations.

The United States runs a large, consistent trade deficit because of its relatively high rate of domestic consumption, its low savings rate, and the strength of the U.S. dollar. Other factors, like high labor costs in the U.S. relative to the rest of the world and U.S. consumers spending more than those in other countries, also contribute.

In short, the United States spends more than it makes, and a lot of that spending necessarily ends up on foreign products.

Some argue that the United States should raise its tariffs on foreign goods to balance the trade deficit.

Whether the trade deficit matters depends on who you ask. Some argue that trade deficits are proof of unfair foreign trade practices that have harmed U.S. workers and businesses. Others point to the trade deficit as contributing to the overall U.S. debt, which they say could weaken the economy over the long term.

Not all economists think the trade deficit matters, however. Those on this side of the debate say the trade deficit is a function of a strong economy in which consumers spend more and foreign investors park their cash. Running a trade surplus, they claim, would weaken the U.S. dollar, which could remove the United States as the anchor and engine of the global economy and weaken it geopolitically as well.

Others point out that much of the debate over the trade deficit focuses on trade in goods but not services, which play a much larger role in the U.S. economy. In fact, the U.S. has a trade-in-services surplus with many countries.

The bottom line is that there are downsides to the trade deficit, like the loss of jobs in some sectors and contribution to the national debt -- but there are upsides as well in the form of cheaper foreign goods, foreign investment, and maintaining the dollar as the global reserve currency. The key question, then, is how to manage that balance.

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FAQs

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About the Author

Jack Caporal is the Research Director for The Motley Fool and Motley Fool Money. Jack leads efforts to identify and analyze trends shaping investing and personal financial decisions across the United States. His research has appeared in thousands of media outlets including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and CNBC, and has been cited in congressional testimony. He previously covered business and economic trends as a reporter and policy analyst in Washington, D.C. He serves as Chair of the Trade Policy Committee at the World Trade Center in Denver, Colorado. He holds a B.A. degree in International Relations with a concentration in International Economics from Michigan State University.

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The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The U.S. Trade Balance With Every Country

Here's the latest data on the U.S. trade-in-goods surplus and deficits by country.

Key Points

The U.S. trade balance with Canada

The U.S. trade balance with Mexico

The U.S. trade balance with China

The U.S. trade balance with the European Union

The U.S. trade balance with its top trading partners

Do trade deficits matter?

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FAQs

What is the trade balance between the US and China?

What is the US balance of trade?

What is the trade balance between the US and Canada?

The U.S. trade balance with Canada

The U.S. trade balance with Mexico

The U.S. trade balance with China

The U.S. trade balance with the European Union

The U.S. trade balance with its top trading partners

Do trade deficits matter?

Related investing topics