California residents worried about potential impact of tariffs on employment, economy

Long Beach, a coastal city in the U.S. State of California, is bracing for challenges as its port economy will be affected by the series of executive orders signed and tariffs announced by President Donald Trump. An economic impact study has shown that one in five jobs in this city is related directly or indirectly to trade at its port.

“That’s a lot of jobs for the city of Long Beach, and the study goes on and talks about, if I remember correctly, in southern California 575,000 jobs, in the state of California 700,000 some odd jobs are related to business at the port of Long Beach,” said Bonnie Lowenthal, president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, at a local Chinese New Year celebration event on Saturday.

The latest flurry of tariffs announced by Trump aims to revive domestic manufacturing, but experts say it could take time to build capacity, especially for metals like steel and aluminum.

“At the minimum, it will be three to five years, if not longer for large industrial projects to materialize it. I think it’s much easier for advanced manufacturing to be able to deploy right away within a couple of years’ time, but under no way or form or shape, one can imagine that one will start to see the manufacturing boom in six months. It will not happen. It cannot happen,” said Nick Vyas, founder and executive director of the USC Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute. Meanwhile, concerns are mounting that tariffs could bring much uncertainty to key industries, such as construction and auto-manufacturing, which rely on these raw materials.

“When you are running an industry where average car production, the parts, the subsystems, travels cross-border three and a half to four times before it actually gets assembled, and you introduce this kind of friction between cross-border supply chain, it creates a tremendous anxiety, tremendous inefficiency and tremendous friction. All of this adds up to less productive proposition, higher cost, lower margin, and that makes the entire industry nervous, and rightfully so,” Vyas added.

Mary Barton, treasurer of the Long Beach-Qingdao Association, a non-profit organization established in 1985 to foster friendship and exchanges between Long Beach and China’s coastal port city Qingdao, said these shifts may be felt by many more businesses and their workers.

“Our friends in the business world are worried about whether or not their products will be successful on the market now. And if not, with these new higher prices, will they be forced to lay off people? What will the economic price be for these people to pay who had nothing to do with the disputes?” said Barton.

Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem has demanded the withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from Lebanese territory by Tuesday, as agreed in the latest round of ceasefire deal, amid concerns sparked by the extension of Israeli army presence.

The Israeli army has informed the ceasefire monitoring committee of its decision to remain in five locations in southern Lebanon until the end of the month. The announcement came two days after Israel said that it would stay in areas where Hezbollah has been a dominant force.

Lebanon has rejected Israel’s request for an extension.

“It is a disguised withdrawal that does not indicate the intention of the Israeli enemy to end this unjust war,” said Bahaa Halal, a retired brigadier general of the Lebanese army.

Tensions have been escalating after Israel announced plans to extend the deadline for withdrawing from five locations, leaving displaced residents unable to return and increasing fears of renewed instability.

Theeb al-Ahmad, a farmer from the southern town of al-Bustan, lost his livelihood and his village. Like many displaced residents, he cannot return without reconstruction and without an Israeli withdrawal.

“We built a house from the harvest of our life. We lost it and it was destroyed, and if there is no compensation, we cannot go back, and there is no place for us to go back,” said al-Ahmad.

Lebanon has repeatedly insisted there must be a complete Israeli withdrawal. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said there is no possible discussion about any deadline to extend the withdrawal period, and that it is the responsibility of the U.S. to oversee the withdrawal.

“The Lebanese state must have the solution and be able to pressure the United States and the rest of the international community to convince Israel of this withdrawal,” said Ghassan Rifi, editor-in-chief of Safir al-Shamal.