In the midst of a constant flow of new trade policies in the first three months of President Trump, there is one that Andy Muslinener, who has a small toy business in Maryland, can be late.
This is the end of a freezing exhaust of rights for cheap products from China.
Mr. Trump this month rebuilt A provision that had enabled parcels imported to the United States from Continental China or Hong Kong to avoid prices and other customs requirements if they were assessed at $ 800. The previously escaped escape faced a bipartite examination of the legislators and declines of the Biden administration, partly about the concern of allowing fentanyl to flow to the United States without control.
It has enabled the quick fashion giants Shein and TEMU, which are based on Chinese sellers, to obtain significant market share in recent years by escaping the prices on low value products sent directly to consumers.
Mr. Muslinener’s company Inroad Toys was crushed by the rise of these Chinese electronic commerce giants, he said. His company in Crofton, Maryland sells adhesive tape for toy cars – which is, as seems, a band that looks like a road – which is all made of bulk in China and shipped in containers in the United States. His business was booming, with two -digit sales growth for several years in a row. It ended in 2023, when the popularity of Temu in the United States exploded after the company’s high-level super bowl commercial.
Mr. Muslinener’s sales suddenly dropped. American customers began to buy the imitations of TEMU of a ribbon ribbing on similar road for $ 1.50, much cheaper than its $ 9 product. In a few months, his income dropped by 30%.
“No reduction in costs will bring me to this price,” he said. “I make in China, I matter my products, I sell them on Amazon for a price that takes all these costs into account.”
Put an end to the escape – known as De Minmis – for the goods of China could level the rules of the game for small brands consumer public which say they are underestimated by the commercial model of TEMU and Shein. Muslinener said he had been encouraged when the Biden administration offered reforms available last year and even happier when the Trump administration decided to end it.
But owners of small businesses who could otherwise have reasons to celebrate are now faced with a dilemma. All the potential advantages of the removal of the navigation bypassing solution are offset by Mr. Trump’s sky tariffs on Chinese products, offering little immediate relief. Mr. Trump has imposed A tariff rate of at least 145% on imports from China and a basic tax of 10% on dozens of other business partners.
“If we are privileged enough to start getting more business due to less competition, we will have to make more to meet this need,” said Muslinener. “But guess what. It will cost more money, which we will not have.”
Trump senior officials should meet their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this weekend, in what will be their First official meeting On trade since Mr. Trump imposed prices at three -digit levels last month. Trump suggested on Friday, Trump suggested that it was lowered by 80%prices, although even this level could be too high for many importers, especially small businesses.
Jyoti Jaiswal, who lives in Syosset, NY, designs trades and clothes made by hand, mainly manufactured in India, which she sells through her family business, OMSUTRA. She said that competition from companies that imported goods into the United States from China had been a challenge, forcing her to interrupt certain products. Shein and Temu, in recent years, have reduced her sales of sheets, scarves and jewelry, she said. Customers have opted for similar products, despite lower quality, offered to a fraction of its prices.
With the domination of these rapid fashion retailers, Ms. Jaiswal described the end of Minmis for China a “fair trade policy”.
But the continuation of other prices from Mr. Trump also occupies the front of the stage for her. A tariff of 10% on imports from India is already in force, and the threat of a higher tax of 26% on the country is still looming, once the 90 -day break break on reciprocal rates ends in July. Ms. Jaiswal has interrupted a commercial activity, including an upcoming introduction of a new collection of scarves and travel products.
“It is very difficult for us to plan things and to say what would be the price of these products, whether we can market them or not,” said Ms. Jaiswal.
Trump announced a framework for a trade agreement with Great Britain on Thursday, but agreements with India and other countries have not yet been negotiated or completed.
Shortly after Mr. Trump’s order closed Minmis exemption for China, Temu said he had Shipping of shipping products Of China directly to customers in the United States. Instead, all of its American orders will be sent local warehouses to America, signaling a fundamental change in response to new taxes on Chinese imports with low value.
Not all small businesses are saved from the end of the escape. And unlike large retailers such as TEMU, many are unable to quickly reorganize their supply chains.
John Arensmeyer, the director general of the majority of small businesses, a defense group for defenders, changes their disposition in the context of broader frustration among small businesses on the Trump administration prices. Certain business owners, who have relied on the exemption in franchise import rights for small products which they sell in the United States, or components of the products, have deplored new taxes on low-value imports, he added.
For companies that depend on DE MINMIS, the challenge is amplified by the 145% tariffs of Trump on Chinese products, which now apply to imports previously in tax franchise.
“Now, all of a sudden, losing is an even more important impact than if they had lost it last year,” said Arensmeyer.
Small suppliers of electronic commerce who sell products on popular online markets are ensured for wearing the weight Falling, in the United States and abroad. Cori Kyle, who lives near Vancouver, British Columbia, and whose activity of Etsy jewelry is its main source of income, said that it was preparing to arrest all sales for American customers. The closure of Minmimis is likely to make its items too expensive for Americans to buy; Given that the original vocation medis come from China, they are now subject to high prices. Most of its sales could soon be cut.
However, for the American retailers of Maman-et-Pop who saw their sales bumpy by Shein and Temu’s Aidays on the American market, the change of policy has the potential of being a boost.
For Mike Gray, the success of competition with Chinese electronic commerce platforms began to appear about five years ago in the “decimation” of his electric bicycle business. Mr. Gray owns Sourland Cycles, a bicycle store in Hopewell, NJ, and 20% of his sales came from electric bikes. But as Shein and Temu gained popularity, customers began to gravitate to electric bikes shipped at a lower cost in the United States via Minmis. Its sales of electric bikes fell to around 5% of its overall sales.
“It took a big piece,” said Gray. Many cheaper electric bikes are undergoing brake dysfunctions and lacking parts, he said, but low prices have nevertheless attracted customers from electronic commerce sites.
Gray said that he hoped that the Trump administration of De Minmis for China had lasted. He described the change in “money lining” which could level the rules of the game, at least slightly.
But for the moment, Mr. Gray focuses squarely on the determination of how to assess his bikes while manufacturers are starting to increase their prices by different amounts, citing pricing cost increases. Ibis, a bicycle manufacturer, added rate fees of 5%, or more than $ 120, to one of his mountain bikes last week, Gray said.
“It is difficult to put this in perspective and to think about it,” he said about the effect of changing minimis, “when you have all this uncertainty around prices.”