Posted on December 4, 2024
With President-elect Donald Trump vowing to start a new term with new or additional tariffs on foreign goods, port and shipping officials in Baltimore and elsewhere are bracing for upheaval in the industry.
Trump proposes tariffs to stem illegal immigration, drug flow, but could pose problem for Baltimore’s port By Lorraine Mirabella UPDATED: December 4, 2024 at 6:13 AM ET When President-elect Donald Trump imposed tariffs during his first administration on billions of dollars of imports from China, Chinese imports at the Port of Baltimore fell 20% from 2018 to 2019. Now, with Trump vowing to start the next term with new or additional taxes on foreign goods, port, shipping and elected officials in Maryland and elsewhere are bracing for more upheaval in the industry, especially since it’s unclear what the tariffs might be. When Trump campaigned, he promised a 10% to 20% tariff on foreign imports, and a 60% tariff on goods imported from China.
He has since said he would place tariffs of 25% on products coming to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, and add 10% to any existing Chinese import taxes as a way to control the flow into the country of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs, including fentanyl. And on Saturday, he added threats of 100% tariffs against the BRIC alliance, a bloc of nine nations including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, if they take steps to undermine the U.S. dollar. But it’s uncertain whether Trump will follow through or how such policies would be imposed. Asian imports to Baltimore are still wobbly Trump’s last round of tariffs on China, now the port of Baltimore’s fifth biggest foreign trading partner, led to a drop in Chinese imports from 1.5 million tons in 2018 to to 1.2 million tons in 2019. By last year, volume had built back up to 1.3 million tons, according to the Maryland Port Administration.
“[Next year] we could see some impacts but exactly how much we don’t know yet,” said Richard Scher, the port administration spokesman. “As we add additional business from Asia, we won’t know the full impacts to the Port of Baltimore until any proposed tariffs are put in place.”
