How one importer is attempting to navigate Trump's trade war  

By Bridget Dean, Associate Editor 

Bobby Djavaheri says small- to medium-sized businesses like his are “collateral damage” in President Donald Trump’s barrage of tariff implementations. 

The president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware joined Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka on July 14 during the port’s monthly media briefing to share how tariffs have impacted his livelihood. His company is one of the 125,000 businesses that import through the port, Seroka said. 

The second-generation home goods business owner annually imports between 50 to 100 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods from China through the L.A. port to sell to consumers and other businesses, such as T.J. Maxx. 

“We anticipated maybe 10%, 20% [tariffs] maximum. We didn’t think anything [higher than] that would even be possible,” Djavaheri said. 

In January, Yedi Houseware pre-stocked its warehouse for a few extra months,  anticipating the incoming tariff announcement. Djavaheri’s lost count of how many tariff changes there have been since. And this year will be a difficult one for his business, as Yedi Houseware is paying “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in tariffs to the federal government to date, Djavaheri said. The “rash and unpredictable” tariffs are being paid by importers, not by China, as Trump has suggested, he added. Meanwhile, no financial relief has been provided to importers, Djavaheri said. 
 
And while some businesses can diversify where they import products from, Yedi Houseware, which sells products such as air fryers and pressure cookers, doesn’t have any feasible alternatives, Djavaheri said. The quality and quantity of the products he sells, he said, are only available in China.

Despite the "whipsaw" effect of fluctuating tariffs, the port had its busiest June in its history, handling 892,340 TEUs in June, 8% more than it handled during the same 2024 period, Seroka said. Imports slowed significantly in May and continued to decline during June's first half, but traffic picked up during the mid-June-to-July pause on tariffs on China, he said.    

Seroka siad he expects shipments to decline again in August as delayed reciprocal tariffs take effect.

From left: Bobby Djavaheri, president of Yedi Houseware, and Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles Port of Los Angeles

Trump has said that Americans will face short-term pain, but Djavaheri said he’s wondering how long the short term will be.  

“I’m one business that is feeling that so-called short pain, and I’m telling you that it might take me a couple years to get out of it,” Djavaheri said, adding that he has had to raise his prices to keep his business afloat.  

A member of the National Retail Federation, Djavaheri has participated in lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill; so has the port’s Seroka. The aim: to ensure the voices of retailers and freight handlers are heard by lawmakers, who could push for changes to tariffs or limits to the president’s power to enact them. 
 
By speaking publicly about his experience, Djavaheri said he hopes more politicians and people will understand how the current tariff policies could hurt U.S. businesses and the long-term relationship between the United States and China.