Karen Bass Says Tariff Pain Coming to Los Angeles

Angelenos could feel the squeeze from President Trump’s tariffs as soon as the next few weeks.

That’s what Mayor Karen Bass and other city officials are warning as the Port of Los Angeles sees activity decrease in the wake of the sweeping tariffs imposed in April, KCAL reported.

On June 4, Bass said in a news conference that the effects of the tariffs are coming down the pike and urged leaders to sound the alarm to their constituents.

“[We need] to communicate to Angelenos specifically how this impacts their pocketbook,” Bass said. “I think that sometimes this issue seems kind of far away and people don’t see the immediate impact because the bottom line is that it’s a tax on individuals and their families.”

Traffic at the Port of L.A. has been slashed in half, according to the port’s executive director, Gene Seroka. While the port normally sees 10 to 12 ships every day, it has averaged about five ships in port over the past week. The dropoff in activity has been noticeable for months, he said.

“We can see things a lot earlier in the supply chain based on orders and manufacturing overseas before it hits home here on the ground in the United States,” Seroka said, according to KABC. “As goes the Port of Los Angeles, so goes the American economy.”

Los Angeles City Council member Tim McOsker weighed in.

“Everyone was saying the same thing — that the tariffs have had a negative impact on this economy,” McOsker said at the news conference as reported by KCAL.

McOsker said that thousands of workers have already been impacted. Employees who train workers at the ports and shelf stockers at stores have “less money in their pockets” as a direct result of the tariffs.

“This is a self-inflicted wound. This is an unforced error,” McOsker said. “This is a mistake for absolutely no reason.”

Bass reassured importing industry workers that they will have the full support of the local government in the face of trying federal economic policies.

“No matter what happens on the federal level, at the international level, we will stand with the industry and do all we can to keep moving, to keep our people employed and to keep goods on the shelf at fair prices,” Bass said, per KABC.

On June 4, Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum went into effect, doubling the rate from 25 to 50 percent. The president said the move would “more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States market and thereby undercut the competitiveness of the United States steel and aluminum industries,” according to The New York Times.

— Chris Malone Méndez