19 hours Ago By gp
JINHUA (AFP) – On a sweltering spring day, workers at a Christmas tree factory in eastern China rhythmically assembled piles of branches, wiping away sweat as they daubed white-paint snow onto plastic pine needles. Like countless other companies in the manufacturing powerhouse of Zhejiang province, its products are geared largely towards export – a sector freshly menaced by Donald Trump’s roiling of the global economy and increasingly brutal China tariffs. On Tuesday, the United States (US) president raised levies on Chinese goods to 104 per cent, before increasing them to 125 per cent the next day, later clarifying the cumulative figure at 145 per cent.
“At the beginning, there was some pessimism in the industry,” factory head Jessica Guo told AFP . “But in the last two days, we are more united, that is, we feel we cannot be bullied like this. We are willing to get through this difficult phase with the country.
” The Chinese government is in fighting mode too, increasing its own retaliatory duties to 125 per cent. The tit-for-tat could reduce US-China trade in goods by 80 per cent, the World Trade Organization said this week. The effects are already being seen on Guo’s unseasonal winter wonderland of a factory floor.
There are no US orders currently on the production line – they have been suspended or remain unconfirmed. Other local Christmas tree makers have also been hit, she said, but not as badly as in southern Guangdong province, where some factories’ production can be completely taken up by one large US client. Zhejiang factory owners tend to have a broader, more recently developed client base, according to Guo.
“Really, over the past few years...
we have hardly come across any American customers,” she said as she strode past walls of stacked boxes stamped with addresses in Guatemala and Chile. “We have already slowly broken away from our dependence on the US market, and started to develop other markets.” Fifty minutes away, at a smaller factory specialising in solar powered plastic gadgets, saleswoman Cassie said only 20 per cent of her customers were American – down from 80 per cent pre-pandemic.
Recently she too has had suspensions or cancellations, citing the tariffs. “At the start..
. some of our US customers said we could take (the rise) on together..
. But later it rose ridiculously – and no one could take on that,” said Cassie. “Now we are in a wait-and-see state to see what decisions Trump will make next,” she said, adding they might redirect some US products elsewhere abroad or domestically.
In the meantime, work continues..
