Port of LA: Will tariffs be the Grinch that stole Christmas?

While the Port of Los Angeles saw cargo volumes bounce back from a decline in May, the impact of new Trump administration tariffs and resulting uncertainties continue to negatively impact importers and retailers and could adversely impact Christmas season sales, according to Eugene Seroka, Executive Director, Port of Los Angeles.

At the Port’s July 14^th media briefing, Seroka warned: “We continue to be in for a bumpy ride ahead. Trade partners were looking for long-term mutual agreements. Instead, they received …. tariff hikes. In the last week alone, (new) tariffs were …. 25% on Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia… Over the weekend, we learned Canada would be slapped with 35% tariffs, along with 30% for the European Union and Mexico. All this while our biggest trading partner, China, continues to have an average tariff rate of 55% on goods coming into the U.S. … And retailers are unlikely to order high volume speculatively and risk deep discounts after the holiday season later this year. And for us, consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays.”

Positive June but coal in the stockings?

Seroka did report that the month of June was a positive one: “After a very slow start, the Port of Los Angeles bounced back strong in the second half of June, finishing with 892,340 twenty-foot container units (TEUS). This marks our best June on record and an 8% improvement over last year. While record setting volume is welcome news ... It also highlights the tariff whipsaw effect that we've mentioned before when tariffs kicked in, imports slowed significantly in May and continued to drop through the first half of June. Then with a pause on some tariffs, cargo began moving once again, getting our dockworkers and truckers back out on the job. Overall, the combined cargo volume for the last two months is about the same as last year, and it also matches our five-year average. Looking closer at June, imports, were strong at 470,450 TEUs, which is 10% higher than last year, and a 32% increase compared to a slower May.”

Exports were also up in June: “On the outbound side of our business, the Port handled 126,144 TEUS, and after six straight months of declines, we saw a modest 3% uptick on the export side. However, there is a concern among American outbound shippers that they will start to see more reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods, which could further impact our export volume to the downside.”

After six months in 2025, the Port of Los Angeles has handled 4,955,812 TEUs, 5% more than the same period in 2024.

Seroka is predicting that new tariffs will contribute to a volume slow down for the rest of 2025. He cited National Retail Federation (NRF) projections showing that all US ports will see a slowdown in cargo volumes for the rest of 2025: “I expect volume to ease because of those new tariffs being in place, making it more costly for American importers. Even the National Retail Federation has forecasted a double-digit percentage drop in cargo volume from August all the way through November at US ports across the nation. One thing is certain the year-end holiday cargo orders should already be in … and what's going to be on its way is what we are going to get for that all important holiday season. It's too late to try to negotiate orders at this point in time.”

Impact On Small Houseware Importer

Seroka’s guest for the media briefing was Bobby Djavaheri, President of Yedi Houseware, a family-owned business based in Los Angeles that imports kitchen appliances and other houseware products.

Djavaheri’s company imports 50-100 containers per year: “We import ... houseware-oriented products from dinnerware all the way to air fryers, waffle makers, grills, et cetera, et cetera from China directly.”

Djavaheri made an impassioned plea that Trump administration tariffs are hurting his business and consumers in general. He worries that the Trump administration and its allies in Congress appear to be blind to the negative impact that tariff policies are having on small business.

He added that consumers will soon be paying higher prices with less selections: “I felt like I was stabbed in the back, in a sense, by my own government, because they didn't even offer any type of relief or, or any type of mechanism in place to say: ‘Hey, small business, medium sized business importer … Trust us, and we're going to assist you with this type of relief to get through this one.’

He said the reliance on Chinese goods reflects that “there is no country outside of China that could make … hundreds of thousands of air fryers in a year in the same quality and same standards as we expect. Some of our factories in China are looking to outsource to sister factories in Malaysia and Thailand and Indonesia. But I've yet to receive a final sample to, to even test, but I don't have hopes for that in the near future.”

The increase in tariffs exceeded his expectations in 2025 and is particularly negative on the company because it relies on most of its imported products coming from China. As a result: “Not only are we going to have a very bad year, but we are also going to have losses for sure because I can tell you hundreds of thousands of dollars are going to the federal government from my pocket and not from the Chinese, as the President has suggested so many times. And it's, as you can see …you could hear the frustration in my tone.”

So far in 2025, the cost in tariffs to his business and customers has been “in the amount of tariffs paid is way more than 10 years of what this company has ever paid. I think we raised (prices) about 10% and absorb the rest. It's simply impossible to pass on all of it because folks aren’t going to buy the product …especially in our business. We are a small margin business. The small electrics and dinnerware is a very small margin business.”

Djavaheri describes himself as a conservative but also a businessman who needs to be realistic and practical. He is not confident that the President and his fellow Republicans who support the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement understand the damage that is being done to U.S. businesses and consumers from the tariffs and is skeptical that short term pain will lead to long-term benefits: “MAGA folks like to speak about this short pain thing. Short pain but for the long run things are going to be better off. Now, let us define short. How long is short? Is it one month? No, it is definitely not. Is it six months? No, we know it is not that. Is it going to be a year? Is it going to be two years?”

He believes that small businesses need to make themselves heard in a Congress where some elected representatives believe President Trump is infallible: “I'm part of the National Retail Federation. We have got to educate politicians … I've got a text from a Senator who has zero idea what (is going on) and says, and this is a quote, that:

“‘The President doesn't make mistakes.’ It's insane … that's crazy … And one more thing for the media: China is so far ahead of us in every which way. Folks in the middle of the country have zero idea.”