President Donald Trump said cargo slowdown at U.S. ports is a “good thing.” Economists say it’s not

Is declining international trade a positive? President Donald Trump recently said it is.

During a White House event to announce a United Kingdom trade deal May 8, a reporter asked Trump about reports that cargo traffic at major U.S. ports had slowed, potentially endangering the jobs of dock workers and truck drivers. California port officials have cited cargo declines of 35% with unusually large numbers of canceled shipments.

Trump said, "That means we lose less money. … So when you say it's slowed down, that's a good thing, not a bad thing." 

Economists say it’s not.

"No, it’s not a good thing," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum. "People are employed to unload goods, drive them across the country and stock them on store shelves." If the cargo trade stops, he said, "everybody loses."

Three days after Trump’s statement, he announced that the U.S. and China would scale back their trade war for 90 days as negotiators try to hammer out a more permanent agreement. The pause dropped U.S. tariff rates on Chinese products from 145% to 30%. 

The pause could ease the economic fallout for the U.S., but experts said it would not erase it, because tariffs remain elevated.

The White House did not respond to inquiries for this article. 

Why economists say slowing trade is not beneficial

The immediate economic casualty of lower cargo shipments would be jobs at ports, trucking companies and warehouses.

"The jobs of longshoremen, truckers, freight rail operators, and retailers are all at stake when there is low port traffic," said Ross Burkhart, a Boise State University political scientist who specializes in trade policy. 

A report by an economic and transportation firm projected that a decline of 1% in cargo to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, could erase 2,769 jobs and endanger 4,000 more.

Some of these economic disruptions have become evident. At the peak of the trade war with China, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports were seeing cargo shipment declines, and trucking providers were seeing reduced business.

Mario Cordero, the Port of Long Beach’s executive director, said ocean shipping lines had canceled 34 sailings over the next two months, the trade publication FreightWaves reported May 2.

"Just today, we had somewhat north of 235 members who sought work but were not able to get it," Sal DiContanza, port liaison for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. "It’s beginning to manifest itself as a real loss of jobs and income from our members."

The Port of Seattle reported having no container ships docked at its terminal in early May, the first time that had happened since the coronavirus pandemic.

As dock and transportation workers have fewer work opportunities, the economic impacts are expected to spiral into the broader economy.

"Idle transport networks mean layoffs, and job losses across multiple sectors lead to less income for consumer spending, even on domestic products," Burkhart said. "None of this is a desirable situation for the U.S. economy."

Another potential problem if cargo shipments nosedive: shortages of consumer goods.

"The U.S. economy relies on global imports for almost every sector of industry, and declining (port) traffic likely means that there will be major shortages," said Robert Handfield, a North Carolina State University professor of supply chain management. "Small businesses will go bankrupt if they cannot get their products."

For an economy sensitive to consumer spending changes, a consumption slowdown would negatively impact the broader U.S. economy, said Rob Zuidwijk, a professor of global supply chains and ports at Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands.

"Sea ports have a significant impact on the economy and usually contribute substantially to a country’s gross domestic product," he said. 

Featured Fact-check

Charles Blow

stated on May 5, 2025 in a CNN NewsNight episode

“China makes 80% of all toys” and “90% of all Christmas goods” sold in the U.S.

Does the U.S. "lose less money" if it buys less from China?

Economists expressed doubt that buying less from China means the U.S. will "lose less money."

They said Trump is mistaken to consider money spent on goods from any trading partner as money "lost." Trade is a consensual transaction between two parties, each of whom benefits from the trade. 

Items or materials purchased from other countries are often used in goods produced or sold in the United States, said Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Burtless offered the Apple iPhone as an example. It is produced in Asia, and the fully or mostly assembled units are imported to the U.S. and sold to consumers. Apple’s typical profit on an iPhone is 46.9%, made possible by less expensive input costs. Trade enabled "a profit that made the company and its shareholders very happy," Burtless said.

Homebuilders in the U.S. benefit too, Burtless said. They import a sizable percentage of the lumber used in their construction projects, much of it from Canada, he said. They are important ingredients for the construction of new and remodeled homes here in the U.S., which are sold by home builders at a very tidy profit, he said.

In both cases — iPhones and home construction — the U.S. purchasers of these products "are better off than they would be if the U.S. provided 100% of the inputs," Burtless said. 

In general, international trade has allowed countries to specialize in what they can produce in the most economical fashion, economists say.

For products like the iPhone, "Those with the design smarts designed the product, those with cheaper labor built the product, and those who couldn’t compete on labor cost could compete by providing finance, energy, accounting, marketing and other services — things they were good at," said Mary R. Brooks, a management professor emerita at Canada’s Dalhousie University.

Burkhart said, "Declines in international trade lead to declines in economic growth, as international trade supports economic efficiency and industrial innovation." 

Our ruling

Trump said declining cargo traffic at ports "means we lose less money. … When you say it's slowed down, that's a good thing."

Economists say a cargo slowdown at U.S. ports would result in job losses for people employed at ports, in transportation and at warehouses. Those employees’ economic losses will radiate outward into the economy, harming consumer spending and prompting layoffs in other sectors. Consumer goods shortages could result as well.

Trump’s assertion that spending less on imports means the U.S. loses less money also draws skepticism from economists. They say trade enables affordable consumer products, and that consumers will pay higher prices — and potentially buy less — if foreign imports are slashed, which would have spiraling effects through the economy.

We rate the statement False.