On the front line: what a trade war means for one US importer

Bangkok Post Group

Businesses importing goods from China are navigating an ever-changing landscape of tariffs since President Trump took office. One affected business is Prince of Peace Enterprises, an importer of Chinese food products. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00Importers from China have faced shifting tariffs since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

00:07The Trump administration raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 145% in April,

00:13then cut them to 30% last week for a 90-day truce with Beijing.

00:18One affected business is Prince of Peace Enterprises,

00:22selling food products from China outside San Francisco.

00:25Matthew Chin is the president of the company.

00:28One of our best-selling products is our ginger honey crystals,

00:30and that is sourced out of China using ginger from Yunnan.

00:33Chin says that while tariffs are still low as they are, he's taking advantage of them.

00:38We just want clarity.

00:39I think there's a 90-day pause for the reciprocal tariffs that is in effect until July 8th.

00:44So in the next month and a half, it will be important to see what is announced.

00:49In the meantime, what we're doing, we can do is increase production

00:53and bring a product that will arrive before that date.

00:56Chin already had a taste of what sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods may do to the business

01:01when they hit 145% last month.

01:05We had to make the difficult decision to pause our production.

01:08We even had to have a shipment of product that was already at the port in China

01:12be pulled off the ship and brought back to the warehouse

01:15because at over 100% tariff, that product would be dead on arrival.

01:19That would mean more than doubling the price in the market,

01:22and there's no way that the consumer would be able to absorb that, nor could we.

01:25I do understand that there are a lot of manufacturing jobs

01:28and a lot of constituents that have not been able to pivot

01:33or adjust with the globalization of our economy.

01:36But I think that there are ways to address them and support them

01:39or help them transition that could be more beneficial,

01:43that creates value for the system as a whole

01:45versus, I think, a policy that's just tariffs that extracts value.

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