(Image source from: CreaWorldNews)

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on United States imports of Chinese goods is likely to hit up 15 percent of goods moving through the port of Los Angeles once they go into effect, according to port's executive director Gene Seroka.

According to Sereko's data, imports from China coming through the U.S. ports have slowed over the past two months and are down 3.8 percent in April and 8.7 percent in May.

Seroka said it was not easy to pinpoint the accurate cause of declining imports, but there is something and it's something to be mindful of as we evaluate the potential impact of tariffs.

Americas No. 1 container part in 2017 was Los Angeles and according to data by the government it handled cargo valued at $284 billion, with nearly $145 billion of the whole coming direct trade with China.

Seroska said that one million jobs in California are tied to the port, with around 2.7 million employed at ports nationally. He further said he has heard from a number of cargo ship owners "that they are contemplating pulling orders forward in order to avoid being hit with tariffs."

Shipping rates on the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), Amid uncertainty over the Trump administration's trade policy to the U.S. West Coast, have dropped nearly 20 percent since May.

"That decline is troubling for us as we look toward our traditional peak season," Seroka said. "You wouldn't normally see that fluctuation in price at this time, especially on the downward side."

The world's second-largest container shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) earlier this week, said that it would suspend one of the Pacific Ocean services it runs jointly with Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) from July 4, the world's largest shipper, citing a "challenging operating environment for business on the Transpacific trade."

That service does not call at Los Angeles, but Seroka said the move "tells me there's uncertainty in the market and a certain softness that they (MSC) didn't like looking down the line."

By Sowmya Sangam