Ports of L.A., Long Beach already suffering from tariffs

Yahoo

05-05-2025

A week ago, Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka told CNBC he expects to see a 'precipitous' drop in business at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach amid President Donald Trump's tariffs. Just a few days later, though, Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero told the Daily Breeze that the drop-off may already be here.
Ahead of the beginning of the shipping peak season in July, now is the time when the ports usually see an uptick in activity.
Amid tariffs, including a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, this year is shaping up to be much slower, Cordero said.
'It's a lack of clarity and what I've called a 'radical' uncertainty,' Cordero told the Daily Breeze. 'If you're a shipper and have products in China when there's a 145% tariff, you're going to want to wait if you believe this is going to be mitigated in the months to come.'
Seroka told Bloomberg late last week that the Port of L.A. is already down to just about two-thirds of its normal volume.
'In fact,' he said, as reported by the Daily Breeze, 'arrivals next week at the Port of Los Angeles will be down (more than) 35%.'
As reported by Axios, Trump has said those tariffs will come down, but there's no inkling as to when that will happen.
'At some point, I'm going to lower [tariffs on China] because otherwise, you could never do business with them,' he said. 'And they want to do business very much. Look, their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing.'
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