China-US Trade War: China's foreign trade undergoes structural change
Updated 14:27, 01-Sep-2019
To avoid hurting Christmas season sales, the second part of the US tariffs will not go into effect until December 15th. And, Chinese companies are preparing to find a way out. CGTN's Xu Mengqi interviewed business leaders and economic experts to find out more.
With the Trump administration preparing new rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods, it seems not even Santa Claus will escape US-China trade frictions.
Nicknamed "China's Christmas village", the city of Yiwu in the Eastern China's Zhejiang Province is considered to be the world's factory for Christmas decorations. And according to the local Christmas Products Industry Association, about 30% of what's produced here ends up in the US.
XU MENGQI YIWU, ZHEJIANG "Among the goods the US has delayed tariffs on until December are Christmas products and consumer items such as toys, phones and laptops. This so the measures, in Trump's words, 'won't be relevant to the Christmas shopping season.' But while it is hard for American importers to find alternatives to Chinese suppliers, manufacturers here have already diversified their market."
For over a decade, the US has proved to be Huang Jinhe's biggest client source. Although his goods haven't been levied yet, Huang has noticed a decrease in orders from America.
That, however, does not impact his business.
HUANG JINHE, OWNER YIWU ZHAN BANG CRAFT CO.,LTD "We started switching to lower-cost products two or three years ago. Now we have more buyers from countries in Africa, South America and even India. The US only accounts for about 30% of buyers. It used to be at least 60."
Increased orders for Huang's products mainly come from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, a trend experts say reflects the tenacity of the Chinese economy despite escalating trade tensions with the US.
WANG ZHAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR CHINA CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC EXCHANGES "Although trade with the US is decreasing, trade with the European Union and Belt and Road countries is increasing rapidly. This is an emerging structural change."
Huang Jinhe, however, still wants to expand his US market given that there are hundreds of millions of potential consumers. But that plan, he says, also depends on how things go between the two countries. XMQ, CGTN, Yiwu, Zhejiang Province.