Trump tariffs: The impact on jobs at the ports of LA and Long Beach

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are seeing cancellations in scheduled shipments due the ongoing trade war, and it's already impacting jobs.

Marine Clerk's Union President Danny Vilicich said members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) would soon see less hours.

"We're going to see a decrease in work. Our workforce will not be working as much as they are accustomed to working," he said.

Many people working at the ports are bracing for that moment. Nearly 10,000 longshoremen, marine clerks and foreman are feeling the impact of increased tariffs.

Both ports combined expect to see nearly 60 blank sailings for the month of May. Vessels once scheduled to bring goods to L.A. that are now canceled.

"We'll see how drastic this goes with the administration that we have right now," said Vilicich.

The Port of L.A. is expecting a 35% drop in imports during the first week of May, year over year, according to executive director Gene Seroka.

Most of those goods come from China.

"Retailers and large importers are telling me directly that they've all but stopped imports from China," he said. "At 145% tariffs on those imports, that effectively means that the goods coming out of China are two-and-a-half times more expensive than they were just last month."

Nick Vyas, the founding executive director of the Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute at USC, said even if the trade war ended now, with inventory out of position, it could be months before it all stabilizes.

"Either we're going to run out of some things, or we're going to actually have inflation on some things, the higher price of cost of goods sold, and we may actually run things out sooner or later, and then we're going to flood everything back to fill the shelves," he said. "So this will actually go back and forth, like it did in COVID, until it stabilizes, and it takes about six months to stabilize this sequence of things when it goes out of whack."

"This is going to stop a lot of our economy right here in this area, which we go out and we support our local economy, our restaurants, our stores, youth groups for children, sports, numerous things," said Vilicich. "It's going to affect our kids here."

Seroka said the American farmer is hurting because of the retaliatory tariffs on exports. He said growers and ranchers are having a hard time selling their goods because of the increased costs.

All three global supply experts said the only solution is increased pressure on the Trump Administration to lift the tariffs.