Some mainland Chinese manufacturers have been given the green light by major US retailers, including Walmart, to resume shipments after the US trade war all but halted trade between the two countries, the South China Morning Post reports.
According to what sources told the Post, the burden of the new duties is going to be covered by the US buyers. As it stands, the US is charging duties of up to 145 percent on most Chinese imports while China is enforcing a retaliatory 125 percent tariff rate on US imports.
One unnamed source was the vice-president of a stationery and office supplies exporter in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. “We have been told by our long-time partner Walmart to start shipping more [to the US], and we won’t need to bear the extra costs of the new tariffs,” they said.
[See more: Beijing announces measures to protect workers in the face of Washington’s trade war]
Paul Tai, regional director at the garment hangers and packaging products exporter Mainetti, said similar notices had been circulated by his company’s US clients as early as 23 April.
The resumption followed last week’s meeting between US President Donald Trump and the heads of retail giants Walmart, Target and Home Depot. According to CNN, inventory is running very low, with orders from China having been in limbo for weeks.
The Post said it had spoken to Chinese manufacturers who had also received requests from US clients seeking discounts, which some had agreed to while others hadn’t. Last month, Beijing officials chastised Walmart executives for asking some of the company’s Chinese suppliers to slash their prices – which would shift the burden of Trump’s tariffs on to Chinese companies instead of US consumers.
[See more: US tariffs will impede the growth of Macao’s casino industry, local experts warn]
In a scathing editorial published Monday, China’s Global Times noted that many US firms would struggle to find adequate short-term substitutes for Chinese goods. However, buying them at current tariff rates left them with two unsustainable options: selling at a loss or raising prices to a level unaffordable for consumers.
“Multinational companies like Walmart owe their success to economic globalisation, and reckless tariff policies pose a severe test to their product pricing and supply chain systems,” the Global Times editorial read.
“It is impossible for countries to retreat into self-sufficiency behind closed doors, and the idea of ‘excluding China’ from global industrial chains is nothing but a fantasy.”
