Posted on February 5, 2025
Economic experts say China ranks among the top of monthly imports into the Port of Virginia.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — With a new 10% tariff on exports from China to the United States scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, local economic experts weighed in on what it could mean for all of us, as well as a major importer of Chinese goods: the Port of Virginia.
Hampton Roads economists say they will be keeping a close eye since China ranks at the top or near the top of imports coming into the Port of Virginia each month.
“A tariff is a tax and something that is paid by the U.S. importer,” said Bob McNab, an Old Dominion University economics professor.
He said prolonged tariffs on Chinese imports could lower demand at the port, which could impact operations across the supply chain and prices for all of us.
“It’s not just people at the port who are going to be affected, it’s people who provide services to the port that will be impacted as well,” McNab said. “If there is a prolonged impact on trade, then we would see restaurants, bars, retail stores impacted as well.”
McNab said depending on how China responds, it could also affect exports out of the Port of Virginia.
“For example, Virginia farmers in the previous Trump Administration felt themselves subject to Chinese retaliatory action, and that meant their exports through the Port of Virginia went down,” McNab added.
Despite the uncertainty, McNab offered this message.
“Don’t panic,” McNab said. “These things have time to play out before the roof sort of falls off the U.S. economy because the U.S. economy is in a relatively strong position right now.”
A Port of Virginia spokesperson said even with tariffs on imports from China at the Port of Virginia, staff will continue to move the cargo regardless and that any potential impacts likely won’t be known for weeks if not months.
According to President Trump’s order, imported goods loaded on a ship or in final transit mode to the U.S. before Saturday are exempt from the tariff.
