Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Janelle Dumalaon
00:32 Janelle Dumalaon | DW Correspondent | Port of Long Beach, USA
00:47 Mario Cordero | Port of Long Beach CEO
01:26 Mario Cordero | Port of Long Beach CEO
02:16 Weston LaBar | Waterfront Logistics chief strategy officer
02:56 Weston LaBar | Waterfront Logistics chief strategy officer

Script:

At the Port of Long Beach, the world’s supply shows up to meet American demand. 

It’s an especially critical gateway for Chinese goods, with more than 60 Percent of the port’s imports coming from there. 

But the US’s shifting tariffs policies have thrown off the rhythm between the world’s two biggest trading partners.

0.23
+++PTC Janelle +++
Faced with tariffs going up,  importers rushed to get their products in from across the Pacific, into the US to beat those tariffs—leading to a surge of shipments from China. Then tariffs of 145 percent were slapped on Chinese goods in April. Shippers slammed the brakes. Cargo levels dropped.

0.40

And that slowdown is still being felt here.

0.45
+++SOT Mario Cordero, Port of Long Beach CEO+++
Two of the large terminals that we have here are within view of where we're standing. And they each have only one vessel. They each have the capability of having three container vessels at once. So if you were here in January or prior to April 2nd, you would have seen three vessels there at each one of these terminals. And today you only see one. 
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1.06

But things are changing yet again. 

1.08
On May 12, a 90-day truce was announced: US tariffs dropped to 30 percent, and China’s to 10. Now ports are bracing for another spike in arrivals—as shippers race to move goods before that 90-day window shuts, with little idea of what tariffs may look like after that.

1.26

+++SOT Mario Cordero, Port of Long Beach CEO+++
I do expect that we're going to have a surge of sorts, because right now there's still a lot of uncertainty.
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1.34

Ports and surrounding operations depend on complex systems balancing logistics, economics, and labor - and that requires predictability. 

Few people know that better than Weston LaBar, the chief strategy officer at Waterfront Logistics, just a few miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It’s a company offering trucking and warehousing. Because of the tariff-beating shipment surge from a few months ago, LaBar says goods are staying parked here for longer and at greater volumes than they’re used to  - in the warehouses and in the containers in their yard.

2.16
+++SOT Weston LaBar, Waterfront Logistics Chief Strategy Officer+++ 
Our business is built around product moving, which means that at any given time, we've got to have  a thousand people working for the company around the US between truck drivers, between warehouse workers, yard workers.[00:10:51 --> 00:11:02] But when stuff's not moving, the company is still protected because we're we're being paid for storing things, but it's not really the optimal use of our business, and it impacts our abilities to maintain frontline workers. [00:11:02 --> 00:11:06] If there's no truck moving, in and out of the port.Then guess what? You don't need as many truck drivers. 
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2.44

And even if the US and China finally stabilize trade relations in a more enduring way than a temporary truce, workers in the logistics industry might have long since moved on.  

2.56
+++SOT Weston LaBar, Waterfront Logistics Chief Strategy Officer+++
What happens when it picks back up? So we're not laying people off. But if we're not providing as many hours, do our truck drivers start driving Uber? Uh, do our warehouse workers start working, Um, you know, retail or DoorDash or something else, how do you how do you build back that infrastructure quickly? Because it's not like at a drop of a hat, it just turns back on.
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3.15

Around the port, the truce has fueled a sense of optimism that things WILL turn back on, and that operations here will normalize again more permanently. But as of yet, no one knows when - and in a sector where timing is everything, the unknowns remain a heavy burden to bear. 

3.33