From his home in Phoenix, Erica Campbell has been waiting for a Chinese cargo ship to deliver thousands of Jesus dolls, easter eggs in tin, baby enamel blankets on the religious theme and 15,000 Bandages of Jesus.
Ms. Campbell, 36, owner of Be a heartA Catholic product company paid Chinese factories that make the items ago. The boxes were loaded in a container before President Trump imposes a new price of 10% on all Chinese imports February 1. She said that she had probably avoided paying an additional obligation accordingly, but that she feared that there were more American rates to come.
“I cannot understand what will happen,” said Campbell. “I am on alert.”
Trump targeting against China has launched millions of small businesses in troubles. For decades, American companies have designed products in the United States and turned to Chinese factories to produce goods efficiently and at low cost. This is how Apple Produces iPhones and how an entrepreneur like Ms. Campbell, a mother of three, operates a company which, according to her, generates 2 million dollars a year of sales of her kitchen.
THE New York Times heard nearly 100 companies that imported China about how the president’s prices affected them. They are a cross -cutting of tried businesses sewn in the global economy: companies that make greeting cards, board games, outdoor shoes, hangers, digital image frames, coffee equipment, toys, stained glass windows and personalized electronics.
Several themes have emerged. American companies, not Chinese suppliers, have assumed the cost of prices. Many companies have said that they should increase prices to compensate for spending if they had not already done so. Some spoke of a feeling of commercial paralysis: they were afraid of making plans in the middle of the unpredictable flow of new prices, fearing the risk of moving the production of China because no country seemed immune.
Turning to domestic alternatives was generally not viable because they were more expensive, the quality was lower and there were fewer options. Finally, completely reinventing their supply chain would be a huge company for companies, requiring time and expenses that they cannot easily save.
At a minimum, business owners are faced with an increase in costs of 10% of the goods they bring from China – whether components for articles assembled in the United States or finished products made in Chinese facilities. They can receive an invoice when the goods arrive at the port, or the additional expenses may be integrated into shipping costs. In any case, the entrepreneurs have declared, in many cases, it would be money in their pockets.
And it may be just the beginning.
Trump promised last week to put an additional 10% tax on all Chinese imports from Tuesday, the same day as the prices of Mexico and Canada should start. The status of the two countries as important stations for Chinese goods and the prospect of reprisals allow owners of small businesses to worry. From March 12, there will be a right of 25% on Steel and aluminum – Two metals whose production of China dominates. US trade officials propose to impose Fresh on Chinese ships Entering the American ports, potentially increasing shipping costs from China.
Trump said the 10% rate was “an opening salvo”. Last year on the campaign campaign, he promised a price of up to 60%.
Even at 10%, the price is a blow to Julianna RaeA company that sells high -end night clothes because all its products are made in China. Based in Burlington, in Mass., Society designs silk dresses, pajamas and night shirts that are produced in China. It is important to goods in the United States and sells them on its website and on Amazon.
The owners of the company, Bill Keefe and Juli Lee, said that they were rushing to meet the cost increases that Mr. Trump’s import taxes imposed on them. They had imported a lot of inventory before the prices took effect, in anticipation of the seasonal demand for Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Ms. Lee also explores the opportunity to delay certain expeditions in the hope that Mr. Trump could reverse the course of his prices.
Putting orders is a risk. Ms. Lee, 56, is concerned about not having products available for customers. Its Chinese suppliers, already feeling the pinch of a slow interior economy, will be required to hold the inventory for longer periods.
“How many bets can you push on them?” Ms. Lee said, referring to her suppliers, which she had grown up after working together for more than a decade. “Uncertainty is really difficult on both sides.”
In the end, additional expenses may have to be transmitted to the consumer. Mr. Keefe, 71, said that the price of a set of pajamas in popular silk, which costs $ 300, could increase $ 15.
However, the 20 -year -old has no choice but to stay in China. Silk manufacturing facilities exist in other countries, such as Sri Lanka, India, South Korea and Thailand, but “best machinery, best expertise, the ability to produce quality products at a good price is located in China,” said Keefe.
For companies open to moving manufacturing in the United States, the challenge is to find a factory.
For 18 years, the company based in San Francisco by Chris Miksovsky, HumanterDesigned its outdoor and travel products in the United States and has produced in Chinese factories.
But remembered the pricing of prices during the first Trump presidency, Mr. Miksovsky, 56, wanted to see if domestic manufacturing made more sense now. He wanted to start simple with the best -selling product in Humangar but the easiest to do: a plastic utensil with a fork at one end and a spoon on the other used for the campsite.
He sent an email to six companies, four of whom never responded. The two who expressed interest asked many questions about product specifications. After Mr. Miksovsky responded to each investigation, one company stopped responding to his emails, and the other responded for weeks later by apologizing but did not provide a quote.
“It is very good to say that we are going to put these prices in place to bring jobs back to America,” he said. “This assumes that America has the ability to make your product and, more importantly, it assumes that it has the interest of making this product.”
Mr. Miksovsky said he was considering new manufacturing locations, perhaps in Thailand or Vietnam, but that it was difficult to predict the countries that Trump would then target.
“Suppose you spend all this time, effort and money to move your production in another country – who can say that Trump wakes up and that morning, he says:” We are going to put 60% of prices on Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa or choose your country “?” He said.
Shawn Ernst, 39 MomentDuring Trump’s first presidency in one place, he thought he was protected from the costs of increasing trade war with Beijing: Mexico.
But now, the 45 -year -old family business, based in St. Charles, in Illinois, is in shock from the perspective of a double price. The company’s repair parts are made of foreign steel and aluminum, so it faces higher costs from a new price of 25% on these materials. In addition to that, he may have to start paying for an additional rate when he imports his Mexico products. He said he was not clear if he would be taxed twice, but the possibility of “keeps me standing at night”.
Mr. Ernst, who runs the company with his brother, said his Mexican suppliers were ready to absorb a cost increase by 5%. However, Snap Supply will have to transmit the rest of the cost of customers. He said that a replacement for the $ 23 oven may soon cost $ 31. If Snap Supply increases prices too much, he fears that his business will become non -competitive with Chinese companies selling similar parts on Amazon.
He also fears that prices will form his company to dismiss some of his 45 employees, he said.
“We have never felt so affected by something that a president has done,” he said. “It’s so frustrating to see what is really going on.”
Ms. Campbell, the seller of religious property, said that she was considering passing some of the additional costs of prices to her customers. However, it is reluctant because its products are not essential and its customers are families such as its own who are already faced with higher costs for grocery store and gas.
The even higher Chinese prices spectrum makes him panic.
“I don’t think people understand what it looks like,” she said. “Not only for my business, but in life – how are we going to allow ourselves because everything comes from China?”