General Discussion

Tariff tit-for-tat has Seattle waiting for the ships to come in

April 25, 2025 at 6:00 am
Updated April 25, 2025 at 9:32 am

By Paul Roberts
Seattle Times business reporter

Like many of his neighbors near the Seattle waterfront, Alex Smith keeps a close eye on the big container ships crossing Elliott Bay to and from the terminals at the Port of Seattle.

[...]

Smith is hardly alone in worrying about the economy in and around trade-reliant Puget Sound ever since new tariffs rolled out by President Donald Trump quickly escalated into a full-blown trade war.

Experts think it won’t be until May that the full impacts of a U.S.-China tariff tit-for-tat hit the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, given the weekslong transit times between the sparring nations.

But port officials and port-dependent businesses are already feeling the early effects.

[...]