In the first seven months of 2026 the US ran its largest goods deficit with Vietnam at $138.9bn, ahead of Mexico and Taiwan, while the deficit with China fell from a 2018 peak of $419.2bn to roughly $156bn.
Official US figures for the first seven months of 2026 put Mexico as America's biggest trading partner at $588.5bn, with Canada second at $439.1bn. Mainland China is only third at $221.6bn, followed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
A surplus and a deficit are not the same thing
The deficit table looks nothing like that. Vietnam tops it at $138.9bn, then Mexico at $128.9bn, Taiwan at $127.8bn, mainland China at $91.2bn, and Thailand at $66.3bn.
Trading a lot with a country does not mean sending it a lot of money. The two rankings barely line up: Vietnam and Taiwan sit fourth and fifth by total trade but take the top two spots by deficit.
The China line fell the hardest
The US-China deficit peaked at $419.2bn in 2018. This year it is estimated at around $156bn, roughly 63% below that peak.
In the same dataset, the deficit with China is now smaller than those with Vietnam, Mexico and Taiwan. The years of buying the most Chinese goods are about eight years behind us.
Why it matters
The names at the top of the deficit table switching from China to Vietnam, Mexico and Taiwan suggests the tariffs of recent years did not bring orders home, they just made them take a longer and more expensive route. Who runs the biggest deficit often says more about where the money ends up than who got singled out for a tariff.
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