Wholesale traders in Yiwu rue losses as US tariffs point to a woeful purchasing period ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas
- Yiwu, the shopfront of the world’s factory, is where every conceivable made-in-China product from cocktail umbrellas to machine parts is sold
- In previous years, May would be the start of a busy period when buyers from the US and Europe descend on Yiwu to place orders for August shipments in time for the Christmas shopping season. Not this year
Jiang Junhong, idling at a stall stacked with hundreds of flashlights and light-emitting devices of different designs, perks up whenever anyone approaches his space at the Yiwu International Trade market.
His once bustling business, where the minium order filled up entire 20-foot shipping containers, had dwindled ever since US President Donald Trump fired the first salvo of his trade war with China last year. For the first time in a long while, he has to serve retail customers, selling flashlights for 30 yuan (US$4.30) apiece.
“It will be a tough year for us, since business appears to have weakened,” Jiang said during a recent visit this week to this city of 1.2 million people in central Zhejiang. “We are taking a hit from the trade war. We are hoping that buyers from the Middle East and Europe” can make up for the slack left by the American market.
Jiang‘s predicament puts a human face on the economic cost of the year-long dispute between the two largest economies on earth, which may shave an entire percentage point off China’s 2019 growth pace. Chinese exports unexpectedly shrank in April by 2.7 per cent after a 14.2 per cent increase in March, as overseas buyers front-loaded their purchases to get ahead of a May 10 tariff deadline imposed by the Trump administration.