GUANGZHOU, China — From blenders to bicycles, it could get tough for Americans to buy made-in-China products soon.

That’s the message from manufacturers and exporters this week at China’s oldest and biggest trade fair — the Canton Expo. Soaring U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods have sown chaos in China’s manufacturing heartland. Exporters told NPR that orders to America had been halted, and many are scrambling to find revenue elsewhere.

Mini-oven maker Foshan Zero Point Intelligent Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd., got hit hard. It sells 90% of its products in America, according to sales manager Steven Zhang. Escalating tit-for-tat tariffs this month brought everything to a screeching halt.

“We told our suppliers not to deliver raw materials. Our workers were put on leave,” Zhang said. “There was nothing else we could do.”

I don’t remember any time in my life that “brought … to a screeching halt” has been so prevalent across industries. The billionaires will be fine; the rest of us are fucked.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
    14·
    2 days ago

    What’s headed this way is no more of anything, as everything is made in China, nobody in the US manufactures what China manufactures anymore, nobody in the US wants to take up China’s low-skill manufacturing jobs, and it would take years to rebuild factories in the US that would make the stuff China makes - assuming anybody even wants to invest in machine tools and production equipment that is itself sold by China with kajillion percent tariffs.

    Get ready to live in a poor country that repairs existing stuff a lot, Cuba-stylee, if the orange utang and his henchmen aren’t ousted soon.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
      7·
      2 days ago

      You cant even repair half this trash without breaking it in the process. Get a 3d printer now while they exist for the US. Print the crap that breaks and at least limp things along the best you can.