The U.S. trade deficit surged in August to the largest in 14 years with imports climbing again, suggesting that trade could be a drag on economic growth in the third quarter.

The Commerce Department said on Tuesday the trade deficit jumped 5.9% to $67.1 billion, the widest since August 2006.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade gap widening to $66.1 billion in August.

Imports increased by 3.2% to $239 billion. Goods imports rose $6.5 billion to $203 billion. Exports increased 2.2% to $171.9 billion. Goods exports rose $3.5 billion to $119.1 billion.

The closely watched trade deficit with China decreased $1.9 billion to $26.4 billion in August.

A smaller trade bill contributed to gross domestic product over the last three quarters. The coronarivus crisis severely disrupted trade flows, which are now picking up. 

Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that the higher U.S. trade deficit in 2020 has been largely due to non-monetary gold imports and that President Donald Trump's trade policies were working despite a $67.1 billion August trade deficit that was the largest in 14 years.

In a statement, Lighthizer said the larger August trade deficit was due to the stronger performance of the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus compared to those of its G7 trading partners.

"Basically, many of our partners were more negatively affected by the pandemic than we were," Lighthizer said in response to the Commerce Department data..