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Tariffs continue to impact import cargo levels, new data from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates shows.
According to the trade organization, external economic considerations like the now-resolved East Coast port strike and tariffs coming from President Donald Trump‘s administration—which are developing—continue to impact import rates.
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President Trump has decreed a 10-percent tariff on goods inbound from China, and earlier this month announced he plans to bring down a 25-percent tariff on most goods incoming from Mexico and Canada. He has since agreed to a 30-day pause on tariffs with the North American countries, but the tariffs on China remain intact—despite some back and forth on de minimis.
Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, said that even if tariffs on Canada and Mexico do come into effect, it may not impact cargo imports because such a large proportion of U.S. imports from those two countries come via truck or rail.
Despite the tariff tumult, brands and retailers have spent the past few months stockpiling goods in an attempt to preempt the added costs tariffs would inevitably add to their goods.
Hackett Associates data created for NRF’s Global Port Tracker shows that the ports it tracks processed 2.14 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in December of last year. That’s up 14.4 percent as compared with 2023, though November 2024 saw the same ports handling 0.9 percent more TEUs. While the organizations are still waiting for several ports to finalize their data, they project 2024 will be the strongest December on record.
In 2024, the ports tracked saw a 14.8 percent uptick in TEUs processed as compared with 2023. Hackett Associates estimates the total TEUs handled last year came in at 25.5 million; 2021 set the highest-recorded total, at 25.8 million.
Jonathan Gold, NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said uncertainty continues to be an inescapable piece of managing global supply chains.
“Supply chains are complex,” Gold said in a statement. “Retailers continue to engage in diversification efforts. Unfortunately, it takes significant time to move supply chains, even if you can find available capacity. While we support the need to address the fentanyl crisis at our borders, new tariffs on China and other countries will mean higher prices for American families.”