Decorations apart from the Canton Fair complex, the place of the 137th session of the imports and exports of China, popularly known under the name of Canton Fair, on April 15, 2025 in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in China.
Huang Taiming / NPR
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Huang Taiming / NPR
Guangzhou, China – Bike mixers, it could be difficult for Americans to soon buy products made in Chinese.
This is the message of manufacturers and exporters this week during the oldest and larger China lounge – the Canton Expo. The gunning up of American prices on Chinese products sowed chaos in the Chinese manufacturing heart. The exporters told NPR that orders to America had been interrupted, and many were unleashed to find income elsewhere.
The manufacturer of the Mini-Fourreau Foshan Zero Intelligent Point Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd., was hard. He sells 90% of his products in America, according to sales director Steven Zhang. The climbing of tithe rates this month has put everything to hoist everything.
“We have told our suppliers not to deliver raw materials. Our workers were put on leave,” said Zhang. “There was nothing else we could do.”
Guangdong Gales Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. experienced a similar shock, although sales director Monica Liang said that the United States represented a smaller section of her business. The company manufactures mixers and justice.
Mixers and justice manufacturers, Guangdong Gales, were struck by the rise in trade tensions between the United States and China
Aowen CAD / NPR
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Aowen CAD / NPR
“All of our (United States) has arrested their orders,” she said. “Everyone is waiting. No one knows what’s going on and we are all confused.”
A customer, she said, asked for an order of eight goods containers already on a ship at sea, intended for the American coast, or canceled.
And Jacky Jiang, with the aircraft manufacturer, Guangdong Kinwing Electric Industrial Co., LTD., said that his business had been broken with an cancellation avalanche when the American rates reached 125%. (They are now at a basic rate of 145%.)
“The next morning, our customers called and sent an e-mail, one after the other, to stop their orders,” said Jiang.
Last year, the United States imported $ 438.9 billion For Chinese products, according to the office of the US trade representative. China was the third largest source of goods imported from the United States after the European Union and Mexico.
It is impossible to know what is the size of the trade war in American imports from China. Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of the Chinese economy in capital economics, says that the trend could be zero.
A woman walks near the Chinese and American national flags exhibited outside a souvenir boutique in Beijing on January 31, 2025. Tensions on the prices increased this month after the Tit-For-Tat prices.
Andy Wong / AP
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Andy Wong / AP
“The high prices now perceived in both directions are in accordance with most of the bilateral exchanges that cease in the space of a few years,” he wrote in a note on Thursday.
Thursday, President Trump said that he expected to make “a very good deal with China”, although he did not offer details. Beijing previously described Trump’s steep prices as “joke”.
The American-Chinese trade war forces China to recalibrate its strategy
Economists expect a great impact on Chinese growth – even if Chinese exports to the United States represent only 15% of the country’s total exports.
Citi has reduced its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) of China this year to 4.2%, against 4.7%, Goldman Sachs decreased to 4%, against 4.5%, UBS reduced its forecasts to 3.4%by 4%, and this week, Nomura reduced its prediction to 4%by 4.5%.
“Although we expected Beijing significantly intensifying his efforts to replace the loss of exports to the United States with domestic demand, this will probably be quite difficult,” the nomura chief, the economist Ting Lu, in a note.
At the Canton Fair, companies were trying to understand their next move.
The Chinese government encourages domestic demand, which, according to economists, is low for an economy of the size of China. And the Ministry of Commerce said that it would help companies facing abroad to explore local markets. And for some, it makes sense.
Zhang Zhengang is director of a bicycle manufacturer based in Tianjin. At its stand, there is a wall of bikes for children in a rainbow of colors, as well as robust electric bikes.
“The impact of prices will not be as important as you think,” he said. “We can exploit the domestic market, the South American market, the European market, as well as Russia and other countries. The world market is enormous. There is demand for our products in essentially all countries.”
A panel in Canton Fair invites participants to join an investigation.
Aowen Cao
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Aowen Cao
But Monica Liang, with the manufacturer of June and mixers, says that pivoting could be difficult.
Justice, for example, are not very popular in China, where she said that people prefer hot drinks. Liang said that the design of his company’s products is not appropriate either. “They are in European-American style-black and steel machines-so for the Chinese, they are not very friendly,” she said, adding that the inhabitants prefer their pastel devices.
His business will rather be based on other existing markets, such as Europe.
“Our factory has existed for 29 years. We are not counting on a single customer or a market,” she said.
For Kinwing, all the options are on the table.
“We actively explore different paths, such as expansion on non -American markets, such as South America, Europe and Asia,” said Jiang.
“We are also developing other ranges of products and planning to create production facilities abroad. For example, we consider third countries like Mexico, Vietnam and Indonesia as potential manufacturing bases, which could allow us to take a roundabout to reach the American market,” he said.
The canton of Guangzhou is the oldest and largest living room in China.
Aowen Cao
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Aowen Cao
The bypass of prices by producing or transforming in third countries was widespread after the first Trump administration began to impose prices on China. The high prices announced this month on places like Vietnam and Thailand have questioned this strategy, although Trump suspended them until July.
Jiang said that the business owner was in contact with local governments and businesses “to seek different types of support and political solutions”.
In Zero Point, the company that has closed and put workers on leave, Zhang says that everyone is holding his breath and hopes the best.
“In two or three months … if things are really completely stuck, then we will think of other ways to face,” he said.
Customers want the company to open production lines abroad, to get around the prices, he said, adding that it will take time.
“Manufacturing is not something that you can simply change overnight,” he said. “For the moment, we can only wait and see if there are politics changes. If there are any, we will make new plans.”
