Trump trade war has already had huge effect on CA ports

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 26, which represents most of the security on the docks in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The port security workers — who drive other longshore workers from parking lots to the ships, among other things — told 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 said. “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 848, which represents about 8,000 truck drivers in Southern California. He said 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 quickly move stuff around,” he said in an interview with CalMatters. “We’re trying to save Christmas.”

He said the continued uncertainty means many truck drivers are barely working 40 hours a week. Some shipper drivers, who transport cargo off ships to ease congestion on ports, may be working one to two days a week, Tate said. “When there’s no ship, there’s no congestion,” he added.

But in the Bay Area, the Port of Oakland is seeing a possible pickup in activity in June — as of last week, the planned canceled ships for that month have been reduced from 12 to five, port spokesperson Davis said.

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 12, which lowers the tax on imports from China from 145% to 30% for 90 days.  

The volatility is a problem

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, said in mid-May that California farmers are taking a hit. 

“One of our greatest exports are soybeans to China,” she said 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. trade war with China has an outsize effect on California ports: Chinese goods have accounted for 40% of the imports at the Port of Los Angeles, 63% at the Port of Long Beach and 45% at the Port of Oakland.

Despite the temporary deal with China, the lack of clarity is a problem — and tariffs remain high, officials, 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 125,000 importing companies (whose) goods come through the Port of Los Angeles,” Seroka said to CalMatters. “But safe to say, if there was a little bit of a shortage on stock, or if some felt that the 30% average tariff might go higher, sure, people jump back in.” 

But the uncertainty persists, Seroka said. Case in point: On May 23, Trump complained about not being able to reach a deal with Europe on tariffs and threatened a 50% tariff on European goods — which he said over the weekend would be delayed to July 9. He also threatened a 25% 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 said a 10% decline in cargo could mean a 10% decline in jobs. “If you use a round figure of a million jobs stemming from the port operations, that’s a 100,000 job reduction,” he told CalMatters.

His port supports jobs worth tens of billions of dollars in income in the five surrounding counties, according to a report recently released by the port. The report estimates that in 2023, port activity contributed $84.4 billion in local, state and federal taxes. Those were taxes paid by individuals and businesses, said 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, travel… and all of that activity supports the broader economy,” she said.