5/03/2025

Tariff war disrupts all supply chains and has to be reset again

 Even if the tariffs are dismantled today by the USA and China, cancelled contracts have to be renegotiated and forged with Chinese manufacturers by Amazon, Walmart, Target among others. That takes time - time for getting the components to make the products ready for shipment, time for the ships to set sail, time to get back laid off workers at ports to work the cranes if they are still around and have not found alternative jobs. Who is more desperate in the meanwhile? USA consumers waiting for retailers to restock empty shelves or Chinese manufacturers waiting for orders to continue production?


That is provided also that Chinese manufacturers have not committed themselves to Global South customers that is giving them a more stable business deal rather than an uncomfortable feeling dealing with the USA that can turn around any time. I think Chinese manufacturers are now going to look at trade with the USA using a different pair of lenses.

Businesses can be destroyed permanently when customers found new sources which they would not have tried to make use of before and finding them more beneficial to continue to do so. The lesson from the COVID era is one good example of how online shopping takes off during the lockdown and cannibalized the traditional shopping for products at malls. Everything can be had with the press of a button.

Anonymous

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It has been reported that some Western businesses are weighing a return to Russia, after pulling out after the Ukraine War started, forced by the USA administration and its Western allies. There are political hurdles to overcome, and sorry to say, their seat in Russia have now been taken by Russian entrepreneurs and other foreign investors from China. Moving back and winning back market share is out of the question.

The Trump administration is now forcing big financial institutions to move out of China and not providing financial services to Chinese businesses. The USA has already forced the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to act against China by ending loans to China. China should end its membership of the ADB and concentrate resources in expanding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). ADB and AIIB are both doing the exact same thing, if I am not wrong.

This pulling out of USA's financially related entities from China will also end up just like what happened to businesses moving out of Russia earlier and trying to find a way back later on. China is still an expanding manufacturing hub in new growth sectors and a market that some cannot do without. Their seat will also be taken the moment they move out. Complete decoupling is going to be a done deal, and China is not prioritizing its dependence on USA anymore. The world is much bigger than the USA alone unlike the past, and the USA is not the only country that others have to trade with. The Chinese market will forever be gone for USA investors after financial decoupling takes place.

Having said that, the Chinese market is also gone forever for USA farmers and is not going to come back, even if relations go back to normal. China has already found alternative sources of agricultural products - from Brazil, Argentina, Russia and other BRICS countries coming on-line like Indonesia, now a BRICS member with Malaysia and Thailand admitted partners and potential members. China is not going to renege on its commitments to those BRICS countries, knowing the USA is not to be trusted.

While the USA is busy cutting off co-operation with allies, China is building more bridges to cushion the blows from the tariffs and sanctions. Who is going to survive and who is going to bite the dust is not difficult to see.

Anonymous said...

Didn't the yanks just not so long ago was complaining China wasn't opening up to the west.
Now the orange bankrupt is pulling whatever they have out.
They just can't make up their minds. Flip flopping like a pancake.

Anonymous said...

Trump thinks imposing and removing tariffs is just like a light switch, just up and down. This moron never thinks beyond what is in front of his nose.

Anonymous said...

Trump is calling USA people to buy less when China products do not enter the country. Even when buying medicines when tariffs are imposed that will result in shortages. Those people that require medication for sickness like diabetes or cancer, can they buy less or not?

Anonymous said...

The orange loser knows shelves will be emptied once the ignorant rednecks and hillbillies know the real situation. So he's trying to delay the inevitable.