Port of Hueneme holds annual World Trade Week event
Two months after the Trump Administration announced 25% tariffs on passenger vehicles, the taxes’ impact on the Port of Hueneme remains to be seen, speakers said at the port’s May 16 World Trade Week event.
“Today we’re looking at world trade and resiliency given all the developments in trade policy with tariffs and the like,” the port’s CEO and director, Kristin Decas, told the Business Times.
She said the port hasn’t seen any direct impacts from the tariffs.
But she noted, the port doesn’t do as much business with China as other ports.
Trump imposed 145% tariffs on China, one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, but then slashed them to 30% for 90 days.
“The lion’s share of our business is with South America, and then Europe, Japan and South Korea when you look at our automotive freight,” Decas said.
“And right now, our customers are really taking a pause, a deep breath, and just looking at what’s going to happen with tariff negotiations before they shift their supply chains,” she said.
The event’s keynote speaker, Niree Kodaverdian, research manager at Los Angeles-based Beacon Economics, agreed that it’s too early to tell how the tariffs will impact the country.
“We have a lot of imports and lot of exports going through the U.S. across different ports,” she said, noting the country’s major trade partners are Mexico, China, and Canada.
“So obviously, these tariffs are going to impact that trade,” she said. “But we don’t know to what extent.”
That’s due to their fluidity, she said.
“What’s going on with the tariffs? I don’t know. What day is it today,” she said with a laugh.
The World Trade Week event also included remarks from representatives of some of the countries that do business with the port, including Mexico, Japan, Guatemala, and Peru.
