The sweeping tariffs announced by the US last Wednesday are not expected to have a significant impact on Macao, according to the head of the Macao Union Suppliers Association, Sunny Ip, who recently spoke with TDM.
Ip pointed out that the volume of trade between Macao and the US was not large, as data from last year showed that Macao only exported around 300 million patacas’ (US$37.24 million) worth of goods to the US.
Similarly, American exports to Macao amounted to around 7.5 billion patacas (US$931 million) in 2024.
In light of this, the association chairman said the SAR government may not necessarily follow the mainland’s lead and implement retaliatory measures against the US.
Trade agreements that had been signed between Macao’s business sector and countries such as South Africa, Cambodia and Pakistan in recent years are meanwhile expected to help the city to weather the economic storm.
“We have been proactively sourcing our products from different countries and territories,” Ip said, adding that apart from the US, the SAR imports meat from a range of countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the EU.
[See more: Beijing to Washington: ‘Stop using tariffs as a weapon’]
“As for fruits, domestic [Chinese] production has dominated [the market in Macao] in recent times,” the business expert pointed out. “A lot of the products that were imported from the US in the past, including navel oranges and the Red Delicious variety of American apples have all been replaced, so I think there won’t be that big of an impact on the livelihoods of residents for the time being.”
The deputy head of the Macau Economic Association (MEA), Jack Chang Chak-Io, expressed similar sentiments, telling TDM that the US is not a major export market for Macao. Like Ip, he was of the opinion that as a free trade port, it was unnecessary for Macao to respond to the US’s tariffs.
Chang pointed out, however, that Macao and Hong Kong should leverage their strengths to help mainland firms to locate replacement markets.
Victor Lei, the president of the International Logistics and Forwarding Association of Macau, stressed the importance of developing backup plans.
“We need to implement strategies now,” Lei said. “For example, working with our clients to potentially relocate from specific regions to alternative areas, cities or countries to establish new production lines that can still serve the US market,” he told TDM.
US President Donald Trump’s recent announcement of blanket tariffs affects 185 nations and territories, including China, which has been hit with an additional 34 percent tariff that brings the total levy on most Chinese imports to the US to 54 percent.
