Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Top Trading Partners, August 2026. Goods only, Census basis, unrevised. Total goods imports for the period: $2,415.2 billion. The top 15 partners supplied 80.3%.

Imports by region

North America's share is rising because USMCA-qualifying goods face lower duties than most other origins. Asia's mix is shifting inside the region, away from China and toward Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.

What the United States Imports: Products and Categories

Capital goods are the largest category of U.S. imports. They reached $1,126.9 billion in 2025, one third of all goods imports, according to Census Bureau end-use data.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, seasonally adjusted. Shares and changes calculated by CargoEZ.

Biggest movers inside the categories in 2025 (BEA/Census):

• Computers: up $101.4 billion

• Finished metal shapes: up $53.6 billion

• Computer accessories: up $42.7 billion

• Telecommunications equipment: up $30.3 billion

• Passenger cars: down $34.4 billion

• Crude oil: down $27.6 billion

2026 update. Capital goods imports reached $729.8 billion in January to June 2026. That is 34% above the first half of 2025 and 41% of all goods imports. Consumer goods imports fell 25% over the same period, to $335.9 billion. In August 2026, capital goods imports hit a monthly record of $146.4 billion.

U.S. Container Imports and Port Statistics

U.S. container imports totaled 28,079,201 TEU in 2025, according to Descartes. That was 0.4% below the 28,196,462 TEU recorded in 2024.

August 2026 was the third-highest month on record for U.S. container imports, behind May 2022 and July 2025. Volume for the first eight months of 2026 was 0.4% below the same period of 2025. August volume was 21.5% above August 2019.

Reading these numbers. Port throughput counts imports, exports and empty containers. Descartes counts loaded import containers only. The two series cannot be added or compared directly.

Cross-Border Freight With Canada and Mexico

Freight moving between the United States and its two land neighbors totaled $1.6 trillion in 2025, down 1.0% from 2024, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The figures cover imports and exports combined.

Source: BTS Transborder Freight Data Annual Report 2025.

Laredo is the busiest U.S. land port by trade value and handles almost 6 million truck crossings a year. Canada supplied 64% of U.S. crude oil imports by quantity in 2025, which explains the large pipeline share on the northern border.

U.S. Tariff and Customs Statistics

The U.S. government collected $287 billion in customs duties, taxes and fees in calendar year 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. That was 192% more than in 2024.

Fiscal versus calendar year. The $194.9 billion and $287 billion figures are both correct. Most new tariffs took effect from spring 2025, so the calendar year captured more months at the higher rates than the fiscal year did.

Tariff policy timeline

Sources: Levy Economics Institute, Morgan Lewis, CBP.

De minimis. CBP reported collecting more than $1 billion in duties on over 246 million low-value shipments between May and mid-December 2025. For scale, CBP processed 1.07 billion de minimis shipments in fiscal 2023, worth more than $50 billion.

Key U.S. Import Trends

1. Capital goods and AI hardware now drive import growth

Historical data. Capital goods imports rose 17.3% in 2025 while total goods imports rose 4.6%. Computers alone added $101.4 billion. Current data. Capital goods made up 41% of goods imports in the first half of 2026, up from 33% in 2025. Why it matters. High-value electronics move by air and under tight delivery windows. Value is growing much faster than container volume.

2. China's share of U.S. imports has fallen by more than half since 2019

Historical data. China supplied 18.2% of U.S. goods imports in January to October 2019. Its share was 13.4% in 2024 and 9.0% in 2025. Current data. The share is 7.6% for January to August 2026, behind Taiwan. Why it matters. China still supplied about a third of U.S. container imports in August 2026. Its share of value has fallen much faster than its share of boxes.

3. North America is taking a larger share

Historical data. Mexico's share of goods imports rose from 14.4% in January to October 2019 to 15.7% in 2025. Current data. It stands at 17.4% for January to August 2026. Mexico and Canada together supply 28.5%. Why it matters. More freight crosses by truck and rail at a handful of land ports. Laredo alone handled $296.2 billion in 2025.

4. Sourcing is spreading across Asia

Historical data. Imports from Taiwan rose 73% in 2025 and imports from Vietnam rose 42%. Current data. In August 2026, monthly imports from Vietnam (26.5billion)andMalaysia(8.6 billion) set records. Thailand ranks ninth year to date. Why it matters. More origins mean more lanes, more carriers and more country-of-origin checks per importer.

5. Duties have become a major landed-cost line

Historical data. Customs collections rose from about $79 billion in 2024 to about $287 billion in 2025. Current data. Fiscal 2026 collections through June were $163 billion, 50.9% above the same point a year earlier. Why it matters. Duty rates changed legal basis three times in 18 months. Classification, origin and entry timing now move landed cost by double digits.

6. Import timing has become volatile

Historical data. Goods imports peaked at $340.1 billion in March 2025 as importers front-loaded, then fell 23% to $262.6 billion by June 2025. Current data. August 2026 set a new record for total imports. Why it matters. Capacity, warehousing and working capital plans built on smooth seasonal curves no longer hold.

7. Low-value e-commerce parcels now clear as formal trade

Historical data. More than a billion parcels a year entered duty free under the $800 threshold. Current data. The exemption ended worldwide on August 29, 2025. Why it matters. Every parcel now needs classification, valuation and duty payment, which shifts volume from postal channels to brokers and consolidated freight.

Outlook and Forecasts

The items below are projections or stated expectations, not recorded data.

Open questions that could change the numbers. Court challenges to the breadth of the Section 301 duties are under way. USMCA remains in force and is now subject to annual review. Refunds of IEEPA duties, estimated by the Penn Wharton Budget Model at up to $175 billion, are unresolved.

What These Numbers Mean for the Logistics Industry

Freight forwarders. Value is concentrating in capital goods and in lanes from Mexico, Taiwan and Vietnam. Forwarders with air capacity, cross-border trucking and Southeast Asian agent networks are positioned where the growth is. Flat container volume means ocean growth must come from share, not market expansion.

Shippers and importers. Duties are now a first-order cost. With about 240,000 importing companies and three changes of tariff authority in 18 months, entry-level data quality decides both cost and refund eligibility.

Logistics companies and carriers. Month-to-month swings of 20% or more in import value strain drayage, chassis and warehouse capacity. Land-port congestion risk is rising with Mexico's share.

Supply chain managers. Supplier concentration has fallen for China but risen for North America. Dual sourcing across Mexico and Southeast Asia is visible in the data, and so is exposure to USMCA review outcomes.

Logistics technology providers. Demand is strongest for tools that handle tariff classification, origin tracking, multi-leg visibility and landed-cost calculation in one record.

How Freight Forwarding Software Fits In

The trends above raise the amount of data attached to each shipment. A single import file may now carry multiple tariff layers, origin evidence, a multi-country routing and a duty estimate that changes with the entry date.

Freight forwarding platforms help by keeping quotes, shipment milestones, customs filing data and billing in one system. That lets forwarders requote quickly when duties change and gives importers one place to check status and landed cost. CargoEZ is one such platform, built for freight forwarders managing operations, rates, customs filing and finance.

Methodology

Source selection. We used U.S. government statistical agencies first (Census Bureau, BEA, BTS, CBP), then the Congressional Research Service, the Federal Reserve, port authorities and university or think-tank research (Budget Lab at Yale, PIIE). Private data appears only where no official series exists, such as national container counts from Descartes.

Conflicting figures. Where sources differ, we show each figure with its basis. Examples are Census versus balance-of-payments import totals, fiscal versus calendar year duty collections, and effective versus statutory tariff rates.

Definitions. "Imports" means general imports of goods at customs value unless marked as goods and services. Country data is on a Census basis by country of origin. Port throughput includes exports and empties.

Calculations. Shares, percent changes and growth rates marked "calculated by CargoEZ" are derived from the cited source figures. One figure, 2025 imports from Canada, is an estimate and is labeled as such.

Forecasts. Projections appear only in the Outlook section and are attributed to the organization that made them.

Revisions. Census and BEA revise monthly data and publish annual revisions each June. Figures here reflect data published through October 6, 2026.

FAQ

1. How much does the United States import each year?

The United States imported $4,333.8 billion of goods and services in 2025, a record. Goods accounted for $3,438.4 billion and services for $895.4 billion, according to the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

2. Which country does the U.S. import the most from?

Mexico. It supplied $534.8 billion of goods in 2025, about 15.7% of the total. Canada ranked second and China third. In January to August 2026, Mexico's share rose to 17.4%.

3. What does the United States import the most?

Capital goods, such as computers, semiconductors, telecom equipment and machinery. They totaled $1,126.9 billion in 2025, one third of goods imports. Consumer goods were second at $800.3 billion.

4. How much does the U.S. import from China?

$308.4 billion in 2025, down $130.4 billion from 2024. China's share of U.S. goods imports fell to 9.0% in 2025 and to 7.6% in the first eight months of 2026.

5. Are U.S. imports growing?

Yes. Imports of goods and services rose 4.8% in 2025 and are up 4.4% for January to August 2026. August 2026 set a monthly record of $420.8 billion.

6. How many containers does the United States import?

About 28.08 million TEU in 2025, according to Descartes, 0.4% fewer than in 2024. August 2026 volume was 2.6 million TEU.

7. How much tariff revenue does the U.S. collect on imports?

About $287 billion in calendar year 2025, up from roughly $79 billion in 2024. On a fiscal-year basis, customs duties were $194.9 billion in fiscal 2025.

8. Why do sources report different totals for U.S. imports?

They use different definitions. The $4.33 trillion figure includes services. The $3.44 trillion figure is goods on a balance of payments basis. The $3.41 trillion figure is goods on a Census basis, which is the one used for country and product breakdowns.