Trump’s tariffs hit the West’s busiest port – with traffic down by nearly a third
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Driving south from Los Angeles along the coast, you can’t miss the San Pedro port complex. Dozens of red cranes pop up from behind the freeway.
The sound of industry whirs as containers are unloaded from hulking ocean liners on to waiting lorries and freight trains that seem to never end.
The port of Long Beach combines with the port of Los Angeles to make the busiest port in the western hemisphere.
The colourful metal containers contain anything and everything, from clothes and car parts to fridges and furniture. Around $300bn of cargo passes through here every year and 60% of it is from China.
But at the moment, it’s far less busy than usual. Traffic is down by a third, compared with this time last year.
In the closest part of the mainland United States to China, this is Donald Trump‘s new tariffs policy in action, the direct result of frozen trade between the two countries.
“For the month of May, we expect that we’ll be down about 30% from where we were in May of 2024,” Noel Hacegaba, the port of Long Beach chief operating officer, tells Sky News.
“What that translates into is fewer ships and fewer containers. It means fewer trucks will be needed to transport those containers from the port terminal to the warehouses. It means fewer jobs.”
Noel Hacegaba, chief operating officer of the port of Long Beach
‘We’re barely surviving’
Helen Andrade knows all about that. She and her husband, Javier, are both lorry drivers. Helen only got her license in the last few years, so when work dries up, she is likely to be impacted first.
“I’m lying awake at night worrying about this,” she says.
“We’re barely surviving and we’re already seeing work slowing down. In my case, there are two incomes that are not going to come in. How are we going to survive?”
Helen adds: “I’m scared for the next two weeks, because over the next two weeks, I’m going to see where this is going, whether I have saved up enough money, which I know that I have not.”
Lorry driver Helen Andrade
In Long Beach, one in five jobs is connected to the port. But what happens in the port doesn’t stay here.
The shipments reach every part of the country and already, a shortage of certain items imported from China and price hikes are taking hold.
A short drive away is downtown LA’s toy district, a multicultural area consisting of a dozen streets of pastel-coloured buildings, home to importers and wholesalers of toys, much of which is imported from China.
Colourful balloons line windows in LA’s toy district
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One woman in a toy warehouse is reading a Chinese newspaper. She points to a headline about the 145% tariffs.
“I can’t afford this, I can’t afford this, I’m going to have to put prices up,” she says, exasperated.
Empty shelves
Around the corner is a party shop, selling gift bags and wrapping paper. There are empty shelves which would otherwise have been full.
“These empty spaces are where we stopped importing from China because the tariffs are too high,” says the owner, Jacob Mok.
Party shop owner Jacob Mok
Empty shelves in Mr Mok’s party shop
He tells Sky News: “I’ll keep watching China and America negotiations. I hope as soon as possible they reach a deal because this is very hard for us.”
Jacob is not alone. The impact is being felt throughout the supply chain.
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US trade secretary Scott Bessent will meet his Chinese counterpart in Switzerland this weekend.
Pressure is growing on Mr Trump’s team to strike a deal with China and do it quickly.
