Those ports are supposed to be handling
We’ve been so immersed in the business of wondering how we’re going to run the ports of Tacoma and Seattle that we’ve paid scant attention to what’s happening with the economies of the countries that are supposed to be sending (and to a lesser extent receiving) all the stuff those ports are supposed to be handling.
That might be a mistake. While our attention has been focused inward, looking outward only to check on what other North American ports might be up to, there have been some developments, trends and shifts in global trade, and more than a few of them have big implications for port operations and the regional economy here.
The widely assumed assumption is that “global trade” for ports such as Tacoma and Seattle essentially means “China.” That’s not the full picture, but it’s a big chunk of it. In 2013, according to Port of Tacoma data, the value of two-way trade with China/Hong Kong was $20.2 billion. Japan was a distant second, at $13.6 billion, and from there it’s a waterfall drop to third, South Korea at $4 billion. (The port says shipments to and from Alaska, if counted as an international trading partner, would rank fifth, just behind Taiwan).
Thus China alone represents about 41 percent of Tacoma’s international trade — not a majority, but big enough to warrant attention should things be happening.
And they are. The World Bank, in its semi-annual East Asia Pacific Update, warns that growth rates for China and the developing economies of that region (basically everybody except China) will slow in 2015 and 2016.