In May 2025 also Long Beach, like the other main port Los Angeles American West Coast Shipping Containers ( of 17 June 2025), felt the impact on its traffic of the effect of the new tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump recording a decrease in the volumes of containerized handled that amounted to 639 thousand TEUs, with a decrease of -8.2% on the previous year. May 2024. The CEO of the Port of Long Beach, Mario Cordero, however, said he was confident that a temporary suspension of these new tariffs could likely to result in a surge in traffic by the end of the current month: "We continue to be - he explained - moderately optimistic about a recovery in freight traffic import between the end of June and July, just in time for The peak season of ocean freight, when retailers will stock the shelves with school supplies and start the preparations for the winter holidays".

The confidence expressed by Cordero, however, seems to clash with The far from obvious outcome of the negotiations on the new tariffs conducted by the U.S. government administration with other nations that have so far had little success, such as the agreement tariff last month with the UK which brought yesterday President Trump to sign an ordinance implementing the commitments American standards provided for by the agreement. The White House has defined that the new trade agreement is of "historic" significance, stressing that it ensures that US companies have access without previous to UK markets, in particular for meat and some agricultural exports, strengthening the at the same time the US national security. With regard to the imports from the United Kingdom, the order provides that the first 100 thousand British vehicles imported into the USA are subject to a 10% duty and that any additional vehicle imported in the year is subject to a rate of 25%. With regard to another of the crucial points of the agreement, the of British steel imports, on the other hand, the ordinance postpones the question of the possible removal of duties to the assessment by the Secretary of Commerce in consultation with the U.S. Trade Representative.

Furthermore, any commercial agreements with other primary partners of the USA, starting with the European Union, but Another agreement welcomed once again as historic by the Trump administration: the one with China which, if it is reached in recent days, however, it does not seem yet defined by remaining divergences between the two parties that still seem to be far from making the agreement official.

In addition, the issue of new tariffs also agitates the market and its exploits. Yesterday family businesses Learning Resources Inc. and hand2mind Inc., active in the toys and educational games, have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court asking to assess whether the new tariffs are legitimate under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the law authorizing the American president to adopt specific emergency measures, including the imposition of sanctions or the freezing of assets to protect the US from foreign threats, which was used by Trump to impose tariffs. The two companies, which had previously had the pronouncement to them favor on the matter by a federal district judge, appealed to the Supreme Court because, as pointed out In the application, they consider the question of "fundamental importance" and consider it urgent that the issue be resolved before the case is heard by a court of appeal.

Meanwhile, the effect of the tariffs has been to Halting a long positive trend in container imports across the Long Beach Harbor that last month were amounted to 299 thousand TEUs, down -13.4% on May 2024. In full containers for export also decreased which amounted to 82 thousand TEUs (-18.6%). On the other hand, there was a slight increase the handling of empty containers which totaled 258 thousand TEU (+3.2%).

In the first five months of 2025, the Californian port of call 4.04 million TEUs handled, with an increase of +17.2% on the same period last year. Containers full of landings stood at 1.94 million TEUs (+16.3%), containers Full at embarkation at 469 thousand TEUs (-2.0%) and empty containers at 1.63 million TEUs (+25.3%).