In January 2026, the negative trend of the container traffic handled by the Port of Los Angeles which is in progress since last August. 812 thousand were handled during the month TEU, with a decrease of -12.1% on January 2025. For the director executive of the Port of Los Angeles, Gene Seroka, the decrease is was determined by multiple contributing causes: "There are - he said detected - several factors at play. First of all, we are comparing the data of January with the high ones of 2025 when importers were scrambling to get the goods there before the duties. Secondly, stocks continue to be slightly higher reflecting previous freight growth and a replenishment of stocks more cautiously. Finally, the U.S. trade policy continues to keep everyone on the side of the bated breath. However, the American consumer has shown a remarkable resilience. And purchase orders shipped with three months ahead of the curve towards Asia seem stable, a good sign".

The attribution of the causes does not seem entirely convincing of the reduction in containerized traffic in January 2026 only at the high level of the same month last year and the impact of the new tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump. The latter were only announced in April 2025, although it was certainly foreseeable that further tariffs would be applied after already in his first term as president Trump had imposed tariffs on imports from China, but the wave of "reciprocal" duties with respect to a multitude of nations presented last spring. Moreover, if it is true that a January 2025 container traffic in the Port of Los Angeles reached a record level for this month, the volume of shipments containerized containers handled in January 2026 is still -6.2% lower than that totaled in January 2022 as well as -5.1% lower than the January total 2024, by -4.7% compared to January 2017, by -2.8% compared to January 2017, by -2.8% compared to January 2017. January 2021 and -1.8% compared to January 2017.

However, if in January 2026 the full containers landed, equal to 422 thousand TEUs, down -12.9% on January 2025, can be confirm the effect of tariffs and the persistently high level of including the reduction of full containers on boarding, equal to 104 thousand TEUs in January 2026 (-7.9%), which is in place from last November, after a period of recovery, it could be was caused by the acute trade tensions between the US and the many other economies, especially China.

Participating in the presentation of traffic data Handled by the California port in January 2026, Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of Economics, noted that comparing "the current situation with that of a year ago, When we were a month away from the installation of the new Trump administration, and at that point, so in February 2025, Until now, all we had had was the imposition of part of the president of 10% tariffs on China, as we have seen In the remaining part of the year, things did not end there. We have had - explained Bown - many more tariffs on China. We have had retaliation from China. We have had tariffs on the Canada and Mexico. And then we had the duties of the "Liberation Day" also on the rest of the world. This has led to a lot of activity, much more activity on the front tariff than we have probably seen from the Second World War, in the 30s. And if things have calmed down in the second half of the year, while the president and his team were out negotiating deals, we also know that this president is one who tends to use tariffs for any possible reason, which often has nothing to do with the trade. So when it comes to trade policy, there is a lot of uncertainty and we know that we are waiting for a change suddenly".

Referring to the impact on the American economy of the new wave of tariffs introduced by Trump in his second term, Bown, also referring to "a couple of excellent research studies published only in the last few weeks", specified that "What we know so far about the tariffs that the United States, with Trump administration, they applied last year, is that To date, the burden of those duties is almost entirely the Americans. This means that if a 25% duty on an imported good, the effect of that 25% is paid by someone in the United States. It does not always have repercussions on final prices for consumers. Sometimes it's just the companies that decide to do things differently, perhaps accepting lower profits and perhaps deciding to import less goods. But, at the moment, the tests, at least for the first eight or nine months of 2025, show that almost 100% of duties are paid by someone in the United States. However, it is somehow surprising that we did not find a greater impact on consumer prices, although there has been some impact, but these things take time and, as you said - Bown specified referring to the explanations made by Seroka - the companies had accumulated a lot of stocks in anticipation of the duties coming the last spring".

Referring then, in particular, to trade with China, Bown pointed out that currently "the The state of exports to China appears to be very bad. Overall - he specified - have decreased considerably throughout the Country and here, the Port of Los Angeles, is one of the barometers of our international trade. Last year, the U.S. containerized exports to China are decreased by 26%, although at the Port of Los Angeles they remained relatively stable". Asked about the hypothesis that the Chinese suppliers are lowering the prices of goods purchased by Chinese suppliers. U.S. consumers, Bown said there is currently no "any evidence that exporters are actually lowering prices to remain in the US market".