Everyone will feel this' Bustling ports of southern California suffer tariff strain

Southern California may be known for celebrities and glitz, but the true action has long been about 40 miles away from Hollywood, in a place where high-visibility coveralls and hard hats dominate.

- Victoria Clayton

For the past 25 years, the San Pedro Bay port complex - comprising the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach - has been the celebrity of the shipping world and an economic driver of California's huge economy. It is the busiest seaport in the western hemisphere and one of the busiest in the world, where about 15,000 longshore workers usually pull shifts round the clock, moving billions of dollars of cargo in cars, agriculture, vehicle parts, toys, clothes and furniture.

This week, the port is shining a little less brightly. As a result of the Trump administration's decision to subject imports to a minimum 10% tariff (and levies far higher for goods from 57 countries), roughly a third of the traffic at the port has ground to a halt, according to Eugene Seroka, the chief executive of the Port of Los Angeles.

With more than 70% of the port workforce living within a 10-mile radius of the complex, LA's waterfront communities of San Pedro, Wilmington and Long Beach are expected to be the first hit by the slowdown but they will certainly not be the last, said Gary Herrera, the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) local 13.

"One in every five jobs in southern California is tied to the ports - warehouse workers, truck drivers, logistic teams and more," said Herrera, who has been a longshore worker since 1998. Herrera says LA's Inland Empire, including Riverside and San Bernardino, which serve as warehousing centres for retailers such as Walmart and Amazon, as well as communities such as Bakersfield and Barstow, which have freight rail lines, will also be severely affected.

What happens in the port does not stay in the port, echoed the longtime labour activist and former Los Angeles harbour commissioner Diane Middleton. "One way or the other, cargo that comes in here goes to all 435 US congressional districts," she said. "Everyone in the US will feel this."