"The international trade deficit was $107.6 billion in January, up $7.2 billion from $100.5 billion in December," the department said in a news release.
December was already a record high for the trade deficit, which has been growing for months due to supply chains severely stretched by the pandemic.
US import of goods rose 1.8% in January to $262 billion, a record by itself, the data issued Monday showed.
Exports of US-manufactured goods, in contrast, fell 1.8% to $154.8 billion in January.
The US trade deficit has been trending higher in recent years due to the relatively better performance of the American economy versus that of its trading partners, which encouraged the country to import more. The outbreak of the COVID in March 2020 and the greater divergence in US recovery versus the world has caused the deficit to explode over the past year.
After contracting 3.5% in 2020 from disruptions forced by the pandemic, the economy rebounded by 5.7% in 2021 for its fastest growth in four decades.