China-U.S. trade thaw sparks business rush amid lingering uncertainty

Nearly a month has passed when China and the United States announced a 90-day tariff adjustment period to roll back some of the triple-digit tariffs they had placed on each other after their trade talks in Geneva from May 10 to 11.

While it is still uncertain what will happen after the 90-day period, even within the rest 60 days, experts said the first meeting of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism held in London from June 9 to 10 showed both sides realized what they need is cooperation rather than confrontation.

The London meeting, which took place roughly a month after the Geneva meeting, has led to a mutual recognition between China and the U.S. that cooperation – and pursuing mutually beneficial outcomes – serves their interests better than prolonged confrontation, Sun Taiyi, an associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University in the United States, told CGTN.

The appeal for more cooperation and reducing tariffs is even stronger when the bilateral 90-day tariff adjustment period took effect.

Immediately following the adjustment of tariff policies, retailers from both China and the U.S. saw the sound negotiations between the two countries as an opportunity to develop their businesses.

In an interview with CGTN, Jiang Jiangping, a Christmas product seller from east China's Yiwu City, revealed that U.S. clients are scrambling to book orders, while Lin Wanyi, a furniture exporter from southeast China's Fujian Province, shared that the 20 containers of goods that were previously held up can now be exported smoothly.

U.S. retailer Glenda McMichael told CGTN Stringer that she was pleased with the Trump administration’s decision during the Geneva meeting and expressed eagerness to resume business with China.

The tariff war is like a reality check, proving that China is an important market as well as a supplier of goods for the U.S., said Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, in May.

Besides, container bookings from China to the U.S. surged by nearly 300 percent, according to Vizion, a container tracking data provider.

A manager at a cargo warehouse at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, which handles over a quarter of China's total export volume to the U.S., told China Media Group that inbound container volume had surged by over 60 percent, jumping from approximately 120 to more than 200 containers on a daily basis at the end of May.

Even so, job opportunities at the Port of Los Angeles are down by half, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port, said in an interview with Los Angeles earlier in June.

Nearly half of the longshoremen who support operations at the port went without work, over the last two weeks, and the port processed 25 percent less cargo than forecast for May, Seroka told Los Angeles Times, adding that "since the tariffs went into place, and in May specifically, we've seen the work go off on the downside."

"The June numbers that we're projecting right now are nowhere near where they traditionally should be," Seroka said.

Jamey Stegmaier, the founder and CEO of Stonemaier Video games, has joined a lawsuit that will challenge the unchecked authority of the executive branch to impose tariffs.

While seizing the 90-day window period to expedite the shipment of goods previously stored in China, Stegmaier told China Media Group that the uncertainty of U.S. tariff policies, shipping costs, and inventory security remain the biggest challenges for his company and others. After giving an example that goods shipped from China in late June risk not arriving in the U.S. within the 90-day window – which will pass quickly, Stegmaier said he hopes to see gradual improvements in U.S. trade relations with China and other countries, creating a more stable environment for businesses to return to normal operations.

Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told CGTN that negotiations during the window period would be tough.

Given that current tariffs remain high, China will continue pushing for tariff reductions, said Liu.