Largest port in US sounds alarm on Trump's tariffs

Los Angeles, April 5 (IANS) Tariffs could lead to a 10 per cent drop in cargo volume moving through the Port of Los Angeles later this year, the US largest port's Executive Director Gene Seroka warned.

"We need lumber from Canada; appliances from Mexico; aluminium, steel, copper and furniture from China," Seroka explained in an interview with Politico, an American political digital newspaper.

"All of those commodities and more were hit with the highest tax we've ever seen in yesterday's announcement," he lamented. "Any slowdown at the ports would reach deep into the LA-area economy."

"It's my view that the second half of this year ... we're going to start to see a drop in cargo. The drop, I think, is going to be at least 10 per cent at the nation's largest port here in Los Angeles," he said.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced a new set of levies, imposing a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports starting on April 5 and slapping individualised reciprocal higher rates on those trading partners with which the United States "has the largest trade deficits," which will kick in on April 9, reports Xinhua news agency.

The tariffs included additional duties of 24 per cent on Japan, 25 per cent on South Korea and 34 per cent on China. Additionally, China's new tariff was imposed on top of a 20 per cent tariff that Trump imposed on China over the so-called fentanyl issue. That escalated US tariffs on China to a crippling 54 per cent.

Trump's campaign plan to increase tariffs have triggered a buying frenzy of vendors trying to ship in their international goods before the tariffs hit. So the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach set records for cargo traffic in November as companies loaded up on goods in anticipation of the tariffs.

That rush was over, and available goods would begin to dramatically decrease as shipping slows down and fewer goods are available - or affordable, many business insiders predicted after Trump's announcement Wednesday, noting that any slowdown at the busiest ports in the country would reach deep into the LA-area economy and beyond into the rest of the country.

The trade, transportation, and utilities sector is one of LA County's largest employment clusters, employing an estimated 830,000 workers last year, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Economic Development.

"There will be fewer employment opportunities at the ports and throughout the supply chain that goes from the ports well into the Inland Empire, where huge numbers of containers are processed each day," said economist Jock O'Connell, an international trade advisor at Los Angeles's Beacon Economics.

"You'll see folks that have to scramble pretty quickly to keep their jobs and keep food on the table," Seroka said Friday. "It's going to be disruptive."

--IANS

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