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18-07-2025, 10:09 AM
Businesswoman Zhao Huanhuan, for instance, runs a shop there selling Christmas ornaments from her family’s factory.
Her store is just one of the hundreds of suppliers in the vicinity dedicated to producing goods for the Dec 25 holiday. The city is a powerhouse for Christmas decorations, manufacturing about two-thirds of such products that are sold globally.
Zhao’s American clients had continued purchasing her merchandise during US President Donald Trump’s previous term, when he first enacted tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018.
But when duties hit as high as 145 per cent in the thick of tit-for-tat escalations in April, her customers requested to pause their orders.
Trump has since postponed the implementation of his sweeping tariffs until Aug 1 to allow for negotiations with trading partners.
“Around May, our American clients asked for their goods to be shipped urgently and to rush the orders. They wanted to get this batch of goods to the US within these 90 days of tariff truce,” said Zhao.
But for the merchant, the scramble was an exception rather than the norm. In recent years, her main markets have shifted.
“In the past two to three years, our markets have been in South America, with Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile growing fairly quickly and they are quite stable. This year, the Russian market is also relatively strong,” she said.
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Last year, the city’s total exports reached 589 billion yuan (US$82 billion), an on-year jump of 17.7 per cent, according to Yiwu customs data. The US accounted for less than 15 per cent of the exports.
Her store is just one of the hundreds of suppliers in the vicinity dedicated to producing goods for the Dec 25 holiday. The city is a powerhouse for Christmas decorations, manufacturing about two-thirds of such products that are sold globally.
Zhao’s American clients had continued purchasing her merchandise during US President Donald Trump’s previous term, when he first enacted tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018.
But when duties hit as high as 145 per cent in the thick of tit-for-tat escalations in April, her customers requested to pause their orders.
Trump has since postponed the implementation of his sweeping tariffs until Aug 1 to allow for negotiations with trading partners.
“Around May, our American clients asked for their goods to be shipped urgently and to rush the orders. They wanted to get this batch of goods to the US within these 90 days of tariff truce,” said Zhao.
But for the merchant, the scramble was an exception rather than the norm. In recent years, her main markets have shifted.
“In the past two to three years, our markets have been in South America, with Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile growing fairly quickly and they are quite stable. This year, the Russian market is also relatively strong,” she said.
......
Last year, the city’s total exports reached 589 billion yuan (US$82 billion), an on-year jump of 17.7 per cent, according to Yiwu customs data. The US accounted for less than 15 per cent of the exports.
