The impacts of this year’s rapidly shifting tariff climate is wreaking havoc on small- and medium-sized businesses struggling to survive in the U.S., said the president of a family-owned Los Angeles company who joined Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka on Monday, July 14, for a virtual monthly news conference.
“I see it as not getting better,” said Bobby Djavaheri, President of Yedi Houseware in L.A., noting the confusion with some 70 announcements from the Trump Administration — he’s lost count, he said — and predicting “we’re going to have a very bad year.”
Djavaheri expressed frustration over the situation that has cost smaller and medium-sized businesses money.
Saying that “everything is made in China, like it or not,” he argued that the idea of bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. is not realistic.
“Do you think Generation Z is going to come to work on a production line to make air fryers from seven o’clock in the morning until seven o’clock at night? No,” he said, adding that those factories that would be created here, as they are now also in China, would be largely automated.
It is the small and medium-sized businesses in the United States, he said, that are becoming “collateral damage” in the U.S. tariff wars.
“Not only are we going to have a very bad year,” Djavaheri said, “we’re going to have losses for sure because I could tell you hundreds of thousands of dollars are going to the federal government from my pocket, not from the Chinese.”
Djavaheri’s company was founded by his father, an Iranian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1984. The business imports dinnerware from China to the U.S. such as air fryers, waffle makers and grills and sells to stores such as T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods.
“We anticipated maybe 10%, 20% maximum (tariffs),” he said. “We didn’t think anything after that would be even possible.”
Supporters, however, including the Trump administration, maintain that tariffs are a way to bring production back to the United States and protect local industries, making imports more expensive and encouraging consumers to buy domestic goods.
They also can bring more jobs back to Americans by beefing up domestic production of goods. Tariffs, the Trump administration maintains, is one way to accomplish that.
In a July interview with NBC, Trump said the tariffs have been “very well received” citing stock market numbers
During the hourlong news briefing Seroka also announced the most recent cargo numbers for the Port of Los Angeles, saying that overall June numbers were 8% up from last year during the same month and was the busiest June in the port’s 117-year history.
“After a very slow start, the Port of Los Angeles bounced back strong in the second half of June,” Seroka said. “This marks our best June on record and an 8% improvement over last year.”
“Some importers are bringing in year-end holiday cargo now ahead of potential higher tariffs later in the year,” he continued. “July may be our peak season month as retailers and manufacturers bring orders in earlier than usual, then brace for trade uncertainty.”
The port handled 892,340 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in June 2025.
June 2025 loaded imports came in at 470,450 TEUs, 10% more than last year. Loaded exports landed at 126,144 TEUs, a 3% improvement from 2024. The port processed 295,746 empty container units, 7% more than last year.
After six months in 2025, the Port of Los Angeles has handled 4,955,812 TEUs, 5% more than the same period in 2024.
Meanwhile, the port closed its fiscal year on June 30 with 10.5 million TEUs, Seroka said.
“That marks our third fiscal year exceeding 10 million TEUs, the only Western Hemisphere port to do so,” he said. “And this time we reached that mark without a single vessel backed up.”
Overall the tariffs, Seroka said, have had a “whipsaw effect” on the port’s cargo volumes.
“When tariffs kicked in, imports slowed significantly in May and continued to drop through the first half of June,” he said, predicting a continued “bumpy ride” ahead. “Then with a pause on some tariffs, cargo began moving once again, getting our dock workers and truckers back out on the job.
“Overall, the combined cargo volume for the last two months is about the same as last year, and it also matches our five-year average,” Seroka said.
But the ride ahead will continue to be “bumpy,” Seroka said.
“Trade partners were looking for long-term mutual agreements,” he said. Instead, tariff letters and hikes continue to flow back and forth causing more uncertainty for shippers.
“And for us consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections, and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays,” Seroka said. But he added that July, nevertheless, looks to be strong for cargo flow numbers at the Port of L.A.