‘Mass extinction ... for small businesses.’ West Coast tariff warnings intensify
In one sense, the effects of current U.S. tariff policy uncertainty are comparable to how the COVID-19 pandemic spread in early 2020: The first U.S. impacts were seen on the West Coast and then rapidly emerged elsewhere.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said she’d heard small businesses that rely on imports in the state referring to tariff effects as “a kind of COVID 2.0 for them.”
Murray was one of three West Coast senators and port officials who met virtually with reporters in a Zoom briefing Thursday over the current state of the U.S. trade war with its global partners since President Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement in early April of across-the board higher tariffs, which were later paused for 90 days to negotiate new trade deals.
“They are shouting from the rooftop that Trump is single-handedly detonating a mass extinction event for small businesses in America,” Murray told reporters.
Joining Murray on the call were Democratic U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Alex Padilla of California, along with representatives from the ports of Tacoma, Seattle and Long Beach, California, who spoke about what they’d seen so far.
Wyden noted overseas order cancellations affecting at least one familiar grocery brand.
“Officials at Bob’s Red Mill, which is legendary for its outstanding flour, told me their orders overseas are already beginning to dry up,” he said. “Oregon grass-seed growers estimate that about half of their exports, nearly $200 million in sales, are being canceled.”
He noted, “Over one third of the vessels leaving Oregon are carrying grain, much of which is consumed by China with the reciprocal tariffs. These are exactly the kinds of sales that are in jeopardy.”
The United States has imposed a 145% tariff rate with China, the highest among countries.
Padilla said that “the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach alone received 40% of our nation’s imports. ... the Port of Los Angeles alone has publicly said that they expect imports to drop by about 35% in two weeks’ time ... with the Port of Long Beach making a similar forecast and projection.”
Port of Seattle commissioner Ryan Calkins spoke from a Norfolk, Virginia, airport after meeting this week with port officials from across the United States seeking new business.
“Port of Seattle is a major agricultural exporter, and when imports are frozen because of these tariffs, it means that we also don’t have an opportunity to export those agricultural goods,” he said. “So our farmers in the inland, Northwest and inland California aren’t able to reach their markets as well.”
Port of Tacoma Commission Vice President Dick Marzano focused on the ripple effects of jobs affected by any slowdown.
“We’re seeing longshoremen, truckers, warehouse workers, slowly starting to lose man hours with regards to the international trade tariffs that have taken place,” he said. “We’re even seeing exports from our docks being moved by the producers looking for new customers because they are not able to sell their goods. Less containers are now coming on our vessels.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he added. “It’s going to get worse, unless we can change dramatically.”
Marzano noted that the uncertainty and upheaval is allowing other countries, including China, to essentially take business from the United States. “It takes years to establish customers, and it gives China an opportunity to look for other ways, and encroach upon what we’ve established for years to come. We’re looking for other markets to help offset this, but this hurts everybody.”
Those other markets for the Northwest Seaport Alliance could include Vietnam, Cambodia, India and South Korea, and the development of a market of renewable-energy cargo shipments such as wind turbine blades and transformers, Calkins noted.
Calkins said as for real effects unfolding for NWSA’s ports, “What we are hearing is that the greatest impact is going to start in the last half of May.”
Mario Cordero is chief executive officer of the Port of Long Beach. He told reporters in the briefing, “We moved the most containerized cargo of any American port in the first three months of 2025, and this activity directly supports 2.7 million jobs throughout the country.”
He added, “Shipping lines have already canceled 34 sailings that would have called at the Port of Long Beach over the next two months. We expect more than a 30% drop in the imports in May.”
“We are already seeing the consequences of Trump’s tariffs at our ports,” Murray said. “Fewer ships from across the Pacific means less cargo at our ports, less cargo at our ports means less goods for our truckers to transport—and that ultimately means bare shelves for our retailers and the American consumer.
“Our ports know better than anyone that supply chains do not reset in an instant,” she added.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
