The commercial gap of American goods reaches the record as Trump tariffs introduce the importance of importation

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The United States trade deficit in goods increased to a record in March, since companies first loaded purchases before the imposition of President Donald Trump of radical tariffs in imports.

The gap between imports and exports was extended to $ 162 billion in March, from $ 92.8 billion at the same time in 2024, which marks the highest figure in records that extend in the early 1990s, according to the United States Census Office.

The increase in the trade balance was almost completely reduced to an increase in imports, especially those with a long useful life, such as cars, industrial materials and consumer goods.

The figures add weight to reports that US companies have increased their inventories before the introduction of steep tariffs by the Trump administration.

“The image for (the first quarter of 2025) in general remains that the tariff threats of President Trump triggered a hurry to buy goods now instead of facing higher prices later, which caused a surprising increase in imports,” said Oliver Allen, a senior economist of the United States of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The president of the United States presented a series of the so -called reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which caused a strong sale of shares in the Variable Rent markets and an increase in the financial costs of the US government.

Although the introduction of many of these rates stopped for 90 days on April 4, a baseline of 10 percent remains in force as well as a 145 percent tax in most Chinese imports. Economists say that, even without the rates of April 2 in its place, the current scenario leaves commercial duties at its highest effective rate for more than a century.

The report is ahead of the first estimate for the GDP of the first quarter, which will be released on Wednesday, which is expected to be distorted by the impact of the frontal load.

Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect annualized quarterly growth of only 0.3 percent, below 2.4 percent for the fourth quarter of last year.

But economists say that figures are likely to paint a too negative image of the growth of the United States.

“The GDP number will tell us very little,” said Isabelle Mateos and Lago, chief economist of BNP Paribas. “It will be full of noise and reflect to a large extent, the sum of imports.”

She added: “You will need to really look under the hood to see what is really happening.”

Economists expect a partial change in the second quarter as imports fall and push GDP.

“Today’s (commercial) numbers really highlight the risk that it may be a negative impression of GDP and that is obviously preparing for a very weak 2025,” said James Knightley, an international chief economist of Ing Bank “This is a great storage effort to get ahead of rates … but we hope this is soon: the data of the ports are already slowing down.”

The ports of the west coast, such as Los Angeles, have informed a strong fall in the load volumes in recent weeks, in the midst of the signals that ships that transport products from the east coast of China are returning.

They have also begun to emerge anecdotal reports of construction in construction and industrial products originated by China.

Additional reports by George Steer in New York