Trump tariffs, trade war, already having huge effects on California’s ports
A cruise ships departs San Diego File photo courtesy of Port of San Diego California s port traffic is beginning to look worse now under the effects of President Donald Trump s fickle tariff framework than it did at the height of the COVID- pandemic The vessel calls or cancellations that we re seeing the present day are starting to exceed the number that we saw in COVID- Mario Cordero chief executive of the Port of Long Beach mentioned in an interview with CalMatters in early May At Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka disclosed during a media briefing last week that the port expected ships to arrive in May but have been canceled By comparison last year through May there were a total of cancellations There are cancellations for June already he added Farther north the Port of Oakland saw a month-over-month drop in container activity in April spokesperson Matt Davis noted It was the first critical decline this year as tariffs went into effect The challenges presented by Trump s tariffs are not like COVID explained Martha Miller executive director of the California Association of Port Officials at a business roundtable last week The unpredictability of Trump s edicts means there won t be a surge of cargo she disclosed several businesses are waiting to act including to order goods for import Late Wednesday a federal pact court struck down the bulk of Trump s tariffs ruling that he did not have the authority to impose them under the crisis authority his administration has cited The court s decision in a lawsuit brought by states led by Oregon and five businesses brings fresh uncertainty with the administration likely to appeal though a spokesperson did not say when it would do so when contacted by CalMatters Thursday California which filed a similar but separate lawsuit against the administration over tariffs had filed an amicus brief supporting Oregon s suit Material for the state s three biggest ports confirm that jobs are dwindling for longshore workers up and down the state The numbers of gangs teams of varied sizes that work to handle cargo at each of the ports have declined in the past sparse weeks and have dropped year over year Besides the numbers of containers at the ports gang numbers are another indicator of the amount of work available Gary Herrera is president of the International Longshore Workers Union Local which represents port workers in both Long Beach and Los Angeles Part-time workers are not getting any hours right now Herrera revealed during a media briefing with Long Beach authorities He notified CalMatters that full-time workers who get first dibs on jobs may not be getting hours a week either Herrera was also speaking on behalf of a couple of other locals altogether they represent about full-time and part-time port workers As the tariff drama drags on the impact will be felt by other workers along the supply chain from truck drivers to the staff at warehouses to rail workers and those who work in retail If and when people don t have enough work or lose their jobs their communities and local economies will suffer port administrators and workers say We live and we work in our locality Herrera declared during a latest media briefing with Long Beach officers We spend in our society Gang totals at the Port of Oakland The teams of workers that handle cargo at ports also known as gangs are starting to show year-over-year declines as tariffs affect port activity Luisa Gratz is the president of International Longshore Workers Union Local which represents the greater part of the measure on the docks in Los Angeles and Long Beach The port precaution workers who drive other longshore workers from parking lots to the ships among other things described CalMatters that her constituents are also struggling When there s no work for longshoremen there s very little work for us except gate monitoring she commented It s heartbreaking It s putting people out of work Truckers are also feeling the squeeze from the tariffs Eric Tate is secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local which represents about truck drivers in Southern California He commented truckers especially part-timers who aren t guaranteed any hours are seeing less work though he did say truckers saw a bit of a pickup in work after Trump temporarily reduced tariffs on China We re trying to gear up and fleetly move stuff around he disclosed in an interview with CalMatters We re trying to save Christmas Ship-to-shore cranes loading cargo at the Port of Long Beach on April Photo by Corine Solberg Sipa USA via Reuters He mentioned the continued uncertainty means a multitude of truck drivers are barely working hours a week Specific shipper drivers who passage cargo off ships to ease congestion on ports may be working one to two days a week Tate disclosed When there s no ship there s no congestion he added But in the Bay Area the Port of Oakland is seeing a doable pickup in activity in June as of last week the planned canceled ships for that month have been reduced from to five port spokesperson Davis noted The decline in cargo traffic at the ports could change depending on how different industries and businesses respond to an agreement the Trump administration reached with China on May which lowers the tax on imports from China from to for days The volatility is a challenge Besides a decline in imports from places such as China the ports are handling fewer exports from the state s agricultural industry thanks to retaliatory tariffs on U S goods Stephanie Magnien Rockwell chief of staff at the Port of Los Angeles explained in mid-May that California farmers are taking a hit One of our greatest exports are soybeans to China she disclosed at a hearing held by State Treasurer Fiona Ma about tariffs But Brazil in the month of March exported more soybeans to China than they have in their entire history The U S bargain war with China has an outsize effect on California ports Chinese goods have accounted for of the imports at the Port of Los Angeles at the Port of Long Beach and at the Port of Oakland Despite the temporary deal with China the lack of clarity is a trouble and tariffs remain high personnel business owners and others say Continued changes in the costs of goods make it hard for businesses to plan And only certain size businesses may be able to afford to take a leap and order goods from overseas now We can t generalize here because of those importing companies whose goods come through the Port of Los Angeles Seroka disclosed to CalMatters But safe to say if there was a little bit of a shortage on stock or if selected felt that the average tariff might go higher sure people jump back in But the uncertainty persists Seroka declared Situation in point On May Trump complained about not being able to reach a deal with Europe on tariffs and threatened a tariff on European goods which he stated over the weekend would be delayed to July He also threatened a tariff on iPhones unless Apple begins to make the devices in the United States A big deal Long-term the stakes are high and wide-ranging Port of Long Beach CEO Cordero commented a decline in cargo could mean a decline in jobs If you use a round figure of a million jobs stemming from the port operations that s a job reduction he reported CalMatters His port supports jobs worth tens of billions of dollars in income in the five surrounding counties according to a description in recent times disclosed by the port The assessment estimates that in port activity contributed billion in local state and federal taxes Those were taxes paid by individuals and businesses commented Kimberly Ritter-Martinez the port s manager of economics and funding during the Long Beach media briefing When workers and business owners earn income from working at the port or as one of our suppliers they spend those dollars on groceries entertainment advance and all of that activity supports the broader economic system she noted CalMatters is a 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