Posted on January 20, 2025
After winning hundreds of millions of dollars for Jacksonville’s port so it can be a bigger player in international trade, JaxPort is watching and waiting to see whether President-elect Donald Trump will impose steep tariffs when he’s sworn in Monday.
Among many “Day One” pledges Trump made, he has said he plans to quickly put 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. He has talked about putting tariffs of 10% to 60% on imports from China and also across-the-board 10% tariffs on all imports regardless of what part of the world they’re coming from to the United States.
China, Canada and Mexico are three of the top nations for cargo shipments through JaxPort where a combination of federal, state and local money has made huge investments such as deepening the St. Johns River for bigger ocean-crossing cargo ships.
Why does Trump want higher tariffs on imports?
Trump says the new tariffs would force Mexico and Canada to clamp down on migrants crossing the border illegally into the United States and force China to combat the flow of fentanyl. He also has talked about an across-the-board tariff on imports from all countries.
He says tariffs will force countries that benefit from trade with the United States to pay the federal tariffs, benefitting the federal government’s treasury and making it more financially attractive to manufacture in the U.S. Critics says the cost of tariffs is passed along to consumers in higher prices at the checkout counter and imposing tariffs will lead to destabilizing trade wars.
JaxPort saw rise in cargo volume in advance of possible tariffs
Like other ports that handle international cargo, JaxPort experienced a bump in business at the end of the year as importers saw the potential for tariffs on the horizon. The volume of cargo containers going through Jacksonville was 17% higher in November and December of 2024 compared to the same two-month period ending 2023. Total tonnage was higher by 13%.
Where do imports that go through JaxPort come from?
By tonnage, Canada tops the list accounting for 12% of the imports handled by Jacksonville’s port. China is No. 7 at 5% of all tonnage and Mexico is No. 9 at 3%.
What is JaxPort’s expectation for tariffs?
JaxPort said it is “closely monitoring the potential for the incoming Trump administration to introduce new tariffs on imported foreign goods.”
“It is still too early to know what the impact will be on the port’s cargo volumes because many factors need to be determined, including which countries are affected, the tariff rate, what commodities are affected, whether there will be exemptions, and what, if any, retaliatory tariffs other nations might impose,” the JaxPort statement said.
The port authority said it has diverse trade lanes and cargo that “helps us weather economic conditions like tariffs more favorably than ports that are heavily dependent on a single trade lane or business line.”
JaxPort said its single biggest trading partner by container volume is Puerto Rico and as a U.S. commonwealth, Puerto Rico is exempt from tariffs. About half of JaxPort’s cargo container traffic is linked to Puerto Rico.
“Because we are not completely leveraged in handling only one cargo type or doing business in only one part of the world, we have spread our risk widely and can better absorb localized disruption,” JaxPort said.
