New York – American companies that Trust Chinese products He reacted with silenced relief on Monday after the United States and China agreed to stop their exorbitant tariffs on the products of the other. for 90 days.
Importers still face relatively high dutyHowever, as well as uncertainty about what will happen in the coming weeks and months. Many businesses Delayed or canceled orders After President Donald Trump put a 145% tariff on the articles made in China.
Now, they are worried about a crazy fight that the products in the ships lead to bottlenecks and increased shipping costs. The temporary truce was announced as retailers and its suppliers are looking for Finish your plans and orders for the Christmas shopping season.
“The moment could not have been worse with respect to the placement of orders, so resorting to a penny to pick up customers again and our factories will make us severely delayed,” said the owner of the WS Jonathan Silva Game Company, whose Massachusetts business creates versions Deluxe de Monopoly, Scrabble and other Hasbro’s board games.
Silva said the 30% rate on Chinese imports is still a step in the right direction. He has nine products containers waiting in Factories in China and said he would work to export them to the lowest rate.
The United States commercial representative Jamieson Greer said that the United States agreed to reduce its 145% tariff rate in Chinese products by 115 percentage points, while China agreed to reduce its 125% retaliation rate in US goods. UU. In the same amount. The two parties plan to continue negotiations in a long -term commercial agreement.
The president and CEO of the National Federation of Retail, Matthew Shay, said the measure was a “first critical step to provide a short -term relief for retailers and other companies that are in the midst of ordering goods for the winter vacation season.”
He News sent to the stock market And the value of the dollar stands, an elevator that eluded business owners who face another vertiginous change.
Marc Rosenberg, founder and CEO of The Edge Desk in Deerfield, Illinois, invested millions of dollars to develop a line of ergonomic chairs of $ 1,000 but delayed production in China that would begin this month, with the hope of a tariff break.
Rosenberg said it was a good ongoing US-China trade, but that he believes that the 90-day window is “beyond dangerous”, since shipping delays could result in their chairs are still on the way when the temporary agreement ends.
“There must be a plan that lasts a year or two so that people can plan against it,” he said.
Jeremy Rice, co -owner of a Lexington Decor store, Kentucky, homemade who specializes in artificial floral arrangements, said the limited break makes it insecure of how to address prices. About 90% of Flowers House uses are made in China. It was supplied in the inventory and then stopped shipments in April.
“Our suppliers are still running juggling, without knowing what they are going to do,” Rice said. “We ask in what we could pre-artiff, so there is stock here, but now we are reaching the point where there are things that have gone and we will have to discover how we will address it.”
“There is no relief,” he added. “It’s as if you’re waiting for the next shoe to fall.”
Before Trump began the Last battle of US rates With China, the Miami All Things Equal headquarters was preparing to launch its first electronic table game. The founder Eric Poses said that he spent two years developing the good news is …, a blank filling game that covers issues such as policy and sports. $ 120,000 landed in research and development.
When the president in February added a 20% rate on the products made in China, the poses began to eliminate non -essential features, such as relief. When the rate rose to 145%, it faced two options: leave the goods in China or send them to linked stores, a storage method that allows importers to differ tax payments for up to five years.
Posses contacted his factories in China on Monday to organize deferred shipments, but with his games still subject to a 30%rate, he said he would have to reduce marketing to keep the electronic game at a price of $ 29.99. With other companies also hurried to obtain their products, he said he worries that he cannot do it in shipping containers and that if he does, the cost will be much more expensive.
“It is very difficult to plan because if you want to return to production in a couple of months, then you are worried about the rate of rates when you reach the US ports. UU. After that 90 -day period,” said poses.
Jim Umlauf’s business, 4 knines, based in Oklahoma City, manufactures covers of vehicle seats and cargo coatings for dog owners and others. It imports raw materials such as fabrics, coatings and components of China.
Umlauf said that even with a lower general rate, it is difficult for small businesses to obtain profits. He thinks that the United States government should offer exclusions of small businesses from rates.
“I appreciate any progress made in the front of the rate, but unfortunately, we are still far from being a real solution, especially for small businesses like mine,” Umlauf said. “When tariffs exceed 50%, there are practically no profits unless we drastically increase prices, an option that runs the risk of alienating customers.”
Zou Guoqing, a Chinese exporter that supplies molds and pieces to a snow bicycle factory in Nebraska, as well as fishing and hunting goods to an American retailer in Texas, also believes that the remaining rate of 30% is too high to enjoy.
With the possibility that Washington and Beijing will negotiate on the 20% rate imposed due to what it described as China’s failure to stop the Fentanyl flow, Zou said he would wait until the end of May to decide when to resume shipments to the United States.
Silva, from WS Game Company, said he planned to start making his Christmas season orders this week, but it will not be as bold as it could have been if the ultra -high rate had been suspended for more than 90 days.
“We will order enough to pass and meet the demand that we know will be there in increasing the necessary prices, but until we obtain a solid base of a long -term agreement, the risks are still too high to be aggressive.”
___
Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.
