Companies anticipating the restoration of full-blown trade war tariffs on China are rushing during the 90-day pause to get trades in under 30% versus the pricey 145% alternative, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
“I’m assuming this is probably the best-case scenario for a while,” Astrohaus’ Adam Leeb, who ships Chinese typewriters, told the paper.
The pause is having the impact of flooding Chinese goods into the U.S. market sooner than later, a phenomenon that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick noted to Newsmax that made for temporary poor U.S. GDP numbers on the last U.S. release.
“Because we don’t know what the policy will be like after 90 days, we are rushing to ship what we can now,” Chinese textile saleswoman Lisa Wang told the Journal.
The flood to the market might mean some shipping delays, according to a senior logistics executive in Asia.
“The next 90 days will be quite chaotic,” the executive told the Journal.
Some products may not even have time to flood, according to FranklinWH Energy Storage’s Vincent Ambrose.
“There’s really no opportunity to rush a bunch of products here,” he told the paper.
And 30% tariffs is still a drain on trade, BIMCO’s Niels Rasmussen warned.
“Yes, there is a reprieve. Does that suddenly result in masses of volume? I honestly doubt it,” Rasmussen said.
But the 145% tariffs coming in 90 days is a gantlet already laid out by President Donald Trump.
“I have to take it seriously now,” Leeb told the Journal.
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