LA Port Officials, Economists Show U.S. Exports to China Are in the Pits

Exports from the Port of Los Angeles — the busiest U.S. gateway for ocean trade — fell 8% in January to their lowest monthly level in nearly three years, Executive Director Gene Seroka said.

“Exports to China look dismal,” Seroka said after the port handled 104,297 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of loaded export containers in January, Lisa Baertlein reported for Reuters.

Closely watched imports to the Port of Los Angeles totaled 421,594 TEUs in January, down 13% from the unusually strong level a year earlie

President Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs has upended global trade, and retaliatory duties from China and other nations have hit U.S. exporters — particularly farmers — especially hard.

Soybean shipments from the Port of Los Angeles to China dropped 80% last year, Seroka said, adding that trade did not improve in November or December following discussions between representatives of the two nations on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

“There’s not much that the U.S. is exporting to China these days,” said trade expert Chad Brown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).

He added that outgoing U.S. shipments of goods ranging from beef and corn to crude oil and coal also fell in 2025.

Closely watched imports to the Port of Los Angeles totaled 421,594 TEUs in January, down 13% from the unusually strong level a year earlier, Seroka said. So far, February imports appear relatively flat compared with a year earlier.

Imports are expected to slow in March due to factory closures in China for the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.

Still, Seroka expects total first-quarter volume at the port to fall by less than 10% compared with the same quarter a year earlier, when U.S. importers rushed to bring in goods ahead of President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on countries such as China.

“I don’t see the economy or cargo volume dropping off a cliff after that. And even though holiday sales were softer than we would have liked, I don’t see a dire situation,” Seroka said, referring to lackluster U.S. retail sales in December.

The aforementioned signals potential weakness in consumer spending, which drives about 70% of the nation’s total economic activity.