By Los Angeles County Politics
As Vietnam quietly becomes the Port of Los Angeles’ second-largest trading partner, the only Vietnamese American in Congress wants Washington to tap down on the Southeast Asian country’s progress on human rights.
Vietnam has passed every trading partner but China, with Vietnam-origin cargo through Los Angeles quadrupling over the past decade, and Thailand has entered the port’s top five for the first time, according to FreightWaves. China’s share of the port’s business has fallen from about 60% to 40%, as companies shift manufacturing and assembly to Southeast Asia to cope with tariffs and trade tensions.
According to Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, the port handled a record 1.04 million containers in September.
“Consumer demand remains resilient, importers are replenishing inventories and more cargo is being allocated to Los Angeles as shippers navigate continued challenges along other global trade routes,” said Seroka in a statement.
The Port of Los Angeles supports about 126,000 jobs in the city and 444,000 across the five-county region, according to the port. Together with the Port of Long Beach, the port complex supports nearly 1 million jobs in Southern California, about 1 in 9, from longshore workers and truckers to warehouse employees across the region.
A 2023 report found the two ports generated $21.8 billion in direct revenue for local businesses and $2.7 billion in state and local taxes, the Los Angeles Times reported. The trade is also vulnerable to policy swings: when tariffs hit in May 2025, Seroka said nearly half of the port’s longshore workers went without work for two weeks.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Derek Tran (D-Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood) is pressing the State Department to hold Vietnam’s government accountable for jailing journalists and dissidents, and has backed legislation that would tie human rights and fair trade together in U.S.-Vietnam relations.
Tran, the son of Vietnamese refugees, wrote to the State Department during last month’s UN General Assembly, urging U.S. officials meeting Vietnam’s delegation to press for the release of political prisoners.
“As the United States Mission to the United Nations interacts with the delegation from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, including Party General Secretary and State President Tô Lâm, I urge you to discuss human rights, call for the release of prisoners of conscience, raise concern about parts of the Penal Code that criminalize peaceful dissent, and affirm that stronger relations with Vietnam must be accompanied by measurable and verifiable progress on human rights,” wrote Tran in the letter.
The State Department wrote back that its top human rights official had raised those concerns directly with Vietnam’s government.
“During the UNGA meetings, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Riley Barnes expressed his concerns to Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Dang Hoang Giang on September 22, where he called for the release of unjustly detained political prisoners, including Le Huu Minh Tuan, and discussed transnational repression affecting U.S. citizens, freedom of expression, and religious freedom,” wrote Katherine Bowles, the State Department’s assistant secretary for legislative affairs.
Tran is the official congressional sponsor of Le Huu Minh Tuan, a Vietnamese journalist imprisoned by the government, through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He co-led the bipartisan Vietnam Human Rights Act, which would hold Vietnamese officials accountable for abuses and set human rights and fair-trade priorities for the relationship.
Tran’s district straddles Orange and Los Angeles counties, including Little Saigon in Westminster and Garden Grove, where many residents fled Vietnam’s communist government after the war.
