ILWU Local 4 President Cager Clabaugh says the tariffs are already hurting work at the port. An order for 6,000 tons of copper ore on route to China was recently canceled. The mountains of copper now sit unused in a warehouse at the Port of Vancouver. OPB photo.
Port workers said they’re already seeing less steel on the docks and have seen orders canceled because of new tariffs. The Port of Vancouver is the second largest importer of steel on the West Coast and it makes up a good chunk of their business.
For many at the Port of Vancouver, the impacts of President Trump’s escalating trade war are already here. That’s the message U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., heard from longshoremen and port officials during a visit Tuesday to southwest Washington. Pictured are Sen. Murray with ILWU Local 4 members Cager Clabaugh, Cahri Citron and Jared Smith. OPB photo.
“Usually this yard is filled with steel, and I’m not seeing that,” said Cager Clabaugh, president of the ILWU Local 4 in Vancouver.
Earlier in the morning, Clabaugh said he got a call about a problem at the port’s copper facility. Six-thousand tons of copper ore were set to be loaded onto a ship bound for China next Monday. But a new round of proposed tariffs from China announced on Friday included a 25 percent tariff on copper imports. The ship set to pick up the copper canceled its order and turned back around.
“These mountains of copper ore are going nowhere now,” Clabaugh said.
