Tariff Disruption Is Skipping the Shipping Industry — for Now
The transportation sector will have its first relatively normal peak season since before the pandemic, though how much consumers will share the bite of import duties is still a big question.
Imported goods rebounded in June and continue strong in July.
Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg
While disruptive, the tariffs that President Donald Trump has been glibly tossing out, including new ones last week, haven’t yet produced the widespread damage to the economy that many had predicted.
In large part that’s because Trump has tweaked and pulled back enough on them to prevent a catastrophe. This has earned him the moniker of TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out, but this is a bit misplaced because the tariffs are real and the money flowing in from these duties is large — to the tune of $26.6 billion in June compared with $6.3 billion in the month a year earlier. Even after calling a truce on the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods until August, the import duties on those products averaged 55%, according to the Port of Los Angeles.