(26 Nov 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yiwu, China – 8 November 2024
1. Du Jing, co-owner of Yiwu Xianchuang Handicraft Manufacturing, working
2. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Du Jing, co-owner, Yiwu Xianchuang Handicraft Manufacturing:
++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 3++
“I’m worried that after he (Donald Trump) becomes president he will make changes that are too big. It’s like something is OK today, but not OK tomorrow, which makes people a little scared of not knowing what will happen later. As you can see, when Obama was the president, at least trade was stable, and there were not so many ups and downs. But look at the years when Trump was the president, one day he would say he wants cooperation with you, and the next day he would tear up the agreement and cancel the cooperation. So I am also worried that they will add higher tariffs.”
3. Du Jing working
4. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Zhang Cuiyan, sales director, Ningbo Guanjiang Tools:
++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 5-6++
“If the tariff is higher, for Chinese businesses like us, maybe we’ll have to raise our prices. So when the products sell there, the prices will go up, too. But it won’t have too much impact on these small products.”
5. Wide of Zhang Cuiyan in her showroom
6. Close and tilt-down of metal tools in Zhang’s showroom
7. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Chen Yong, owner, Yiwu Bixuan Import Export:
++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 8-9++
“We don’t have the ability to solve this problem. We can try to increase some exports to other countries, for example: the Middle East, Africa, South America, Russia and also Southeast Asian countries. If you are not able to do it, you have no other way out. We are waiting to see how much the tariffs will be increased, which we don’t know yet.”
8. Various of Chen Yong sitting in his office
9. Glassware samples in Chen’s office
STORYLINE:
Visitors who bought acrylic key chains or fridge magnets from Times Square or other tourist hot spots around New York most likely purchased the work of Du Jing or one of her fellow exporters in a small Chinese city that supplies tons of small commodities.
Du and her husband run Yiwu Xianchuang Handicraft Manufacturing in the eastern city of Yiwu, home to the world’s largest wholesale market.
Products ranging from plushies to glass vases and portable toolboxes are sold in stores and on online platforms, including to U.S. consumers on Amazon.
The United States has been a major destination for Chinese goods, but exporters in Yiwu have been looking at new markets as Beijing and Washington feud over trade.
Some have moved production to Southeast Asia and other parts of the world to evade U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Those trends look to accelerate under president-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened to sharply raise tariffs on all Chinese imports and close some loopholes exporters currently use to sell their products more cheaply in the U.S.
If enacted, his plans would likely raise prices in America and squeeze sales and profit margins for Chinese exporters.
Chinese exporters are already looking at new markets.
Du, speaking from her booth in the Yiwu wholesale market, isn’t sure whether higher tariffs or a worsening U.S. market are to blame. What she knows is sales are down.
“The U.S. market has shrunk a lot,” she said. “It gives me the feeling that it has something to do with their financial situation.”
American customers have been putting a lot of pressure on prices since 2019, frowning at any product that wholesales for more than 25 cents, she said.
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