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Trump withdraws US from international organizations
President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from 66 major global organizations includes United Nations talks on climate change and the oceans.
The U.S. trade gap narrowed in October, a government report released Jan. 8 showed.
The trade deficit in goods and services was $29.4 billion, down 39% from $48.1 billion in September, as tariffs restricted the flow of goods around the globe.
Imports were down 3.2% to $331.4 billion, the Commerce Department said, while exports rose 2.6% to $302 billion. The Trading Economics consensus had been for a wider deficit, of $58.9 billion.
Shrinking the trade gap – in particular by encouraging U.S. exports – is a key goal of the White House’s aggressive tariff policies, but some experts caution that the October data may not reflect that.
“Ultimately this sharp narrowing in the October trade deficit is almost entirely due to the movement of gold,” economists at Wells Fargo wrote in an analysis out after the release. That unusual move is likely to be reversed in coming months, they said.
“The government is still getting caught up with economic indicators delayed during the shutdown, and we’re still months away from our first look at 2026 trade flows,” they added.