Global trade is on course to exceed US$35 trillion in 2025 for the first time, according to the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s final Global Trade Update of the year. The new data confirm that trade continued expanding through the second half of 2025, even as geopolitical tensions, higher costs and uneven global demand slowed momentum. The global trade was surged by 7 percent from 2024. 

The United States remained as the world’s biggest trading country with a total trade of $7.7 trillion in 2025. It suffered a trade deficit of $0.9 trillion.

According to The New York Times newspaper, the U.S. total trade deficit, including trade in both goods and services, shrank slightly last year, as growth in exports narrowly outpaced growth in imports. But that was entirely the result of an expanding trade surplus in services. The trade deficit in physical goods, which has been President Donald Trump’s focus as he has sought to use tariffs to restore the U.S. manufacturing sector, actually grew in 2025.

Overall the U.S. imports of goods and services increased 4.7 percent, to $4.3 trillion, in 2025, while exports rose 6.2 percent, to $3.4 trillion. The trade deficit — the amount by which imports exceed exports — was $901 billion, down from $903 billion in 2024.

Among individual economies, China........

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