The CPA Domestic Market Share Index (DMSI) has rebounded sharply in 2025, signaling that U.S. tariffs are beginning to restore domestic production’s share of the American market.
When the trade deficit goes down, that must mean good news for American manufacturers, right? No, that can’t be assumed. In the year since Liberation Day, a familiar pattern has played out: the value of imports decreased, while the actual quantity of imports increased.
To reduce the deficit in a durable way, the United States must do more than tariff goods. It must tariff the money.
The overall goods and services deficit number for January looked pretty good – coming in at $54.4 billion, its lowest monthly point in years. But when services are stripped from the equation, the goods trade looks like it has returned to level footing. January’s goods deficit was $81.7 billion, according to Thursday’s trade data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Cheap imports shaved prices on some goods but never made Americans richer. Wage losses and job destruction outweighed any discounts.
It was no surprise that the 2025 goods deficit broke another record, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) numbers showed recently. The year-ending goods deficit was $1.24 trillion, up from $1.21 trillion in 2024, with the monthly deficit for December looking like historic averages, nearly $100 billion. Nothing seems to stop America’s appetite for imports.
The November trade deficit numbers returned to a more normal figure, with the services surplus still in the $20s to low $30 billion range, and the goods deficit jumping from the October lull.
Once year-ending 2025 trade data is released in February, we will be looking at another $1 trillion deficit. Assuming the monthly goods deficit for November and December looks like the low October goods deficit of $58.5 billion, the U.S. will record a minimum $1.17 trillion goods gap for 2025, the second largest trade deficit since 2024’s $1.2 trillion barnstormer.
AGOA, first enacted in 2000, provides qualifying sub-Saharan African nations with tariff-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of products and was intended to support economic development, democratic reform, and stronger geopolitical ties to the United States.
We must stop importing more goods than we export, leaving us deeply indebted to our trading partners. I urge Congress to urgently pass a bill that would implement the Market Access Charge. Call your Congressman and Senator today to urge them to support the introduction of such a bill.
