The United States is facing growing isolation from its international trading partners because of the Trump administration’s tariff policies, resulting in container volume declines at US ports, according to Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Impact on US Trade and Port Volumes
Jensen was speaking to the Propeller Club of Northern California (PCNC) on February 3rd, where he said the non-stop tariff threats by the Trump administration are undermining US credibility in the world. “The way this is now being perceived is to be quite blunt — nobody is really taking it seriously. This is now being seen as not quite a daily occurrence, but an occurrence that happens multiple times a week. Unless this comes out in an executive order or as an actual rule, nobody cares anymore. This is taken as noise. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have any impact. It absolutely does have an impact on container markets related to the United States, but solely related to the US.”
When the Trump administration announced a series of tariffs as part of the so-called ‘Liberation Day’ series in April 2025, it set in motion a rapid decline in US trade volumes: “And the effect of the trade war is very visible, very instant. The moment after we saw the so-called “Liberation Day” (tariffs). What we have seen during the trade war is that the rest of the world has been growing basically twice as fast as what could be expected.
North American trades have been underwater ever since. This is for both imports and exports combined, mitigated somewhat by exports. As a consequence of the trade war, the share of volume attributable to North America is also in a rapid decline. So very simply, all over the world has been doing fantastic when it comes to container volume growth in 2025.”
The impact of these declines will especially impact smaller US ports, reducing their volumes, especially since these ports lack the cargo-handling capacity to load and unload mega container ships, Jensen said.
At the same time, he added, the imposition of US tariffs and the decline of the US dollar will accelerate inflation in the United States.