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Since Donald Trump's imposition of 145% of prices on Chinese imports, Andy Wang has bought Panic of Rice of Rice with plastic containers for his restaurant in the Chinese New York district.
Wang said that the expected price increases on Chinese products could put the house of Chop Cop Taiwan Pork which he founded 26 years ago and force him to find himself anticipated.
“I have to refuel so that I can keep the operating costs stable as long as possible,” he said in an interview in his basement of his restaurant surrounded by excess supplies. “Everything you see here, including certain food ingredients, comes from China and the United States have no substitute or have a very expensive one.”
Wang's is one of the thousands of small American Chinese companies in New York who find it difficult to deal with the worst American-Chinese trade war while Washington and Beijing show small signs of flexibility to conclude an agreement.
Trump's aggressive tariff hikes brought a particularly important blow to the community that relies on Chinese products to stay afloat.
The economic impact is worse than the Chinese district experienced after September 11, when customer traffic disappeared for several months, according to the New York advocacy group, The Chinatown Partnership.
“Prices will have a lasting and devastating impact on the American Chinese community,” said executive director Wellington Chen.
Hosting the largest Chinese population among American cities, New York imports more goods from China than anywhere else, outside of Switzerland and Australia.
Chinese American retailers and food catering companies count in particular on suppliers of the world workshop to fill their shelves and equip their kitchens.
“I charge an affordable price, but I am still able to make a supplies in a supplies from China,” said Wang, who sells pork-hop on rice for $ 8.75, inexpensive according to New York standards.
This business model can collapse while Trump's pricing increases increase the prices of Chinese manufacturing goods.
Chinese business owners have said that they could barely transmit cost increases to customers sensitive to prices without lower sales.
“There is no way that our customers can accept prices from $ 100 to $ 200 in such a short time,” Wu Jianxi, C & A supermarket director, said a New York district known for its Chinese community. “They will have to cut the corners.”
Three food wholesalers in New York said their transactions with suppliers in China have dived since Washington imposed the last price in Beijing. Deng Long, owner of Strong America LTD, a sales company based in New York, said that its Chinese partners had ceased to take new orders because the prospects for the tariff war remained clear.
“China seems to be ready to decline from the United States,” said Deng, adding that its Chinese suppliers did not show little interest in sharing the price burden.
American buyers have also withdrawn orders. Hei Chan, director of New Kam Man LLC in the Chinese New York district last week, asked its Chinese partners and Hong Kong to cancel the shipments of dried mushrooms worth more than $ 1 million until the tariff disputes are “resolved”.
Imports dive has led to low stocks among wholesalers, which prompted some of them to charge higher prices or ration sales. Deng of Strong America said that he planned to increase prices by half next week after an increase of 10% this week.
“With a rate of 145%, I will give you Chinese products for free if I sell them at the original price,” said Deng in his warehouse in Long Island City, where the inventory falls to a quick clip.
Other wholesalers have started to define a maximum of sales quotas for buyers who run to refuel. Wang de Taiwan Pork Chop House said he could only buy a box of microwave bowls on Monday after placing an order for six.
“It's really pitiful,” he said. “Everyone has hoard.”
The increase in wholesale prices is starting to spread to detail. Six Chinese supermarkets in the Chinese district and Flushing told Financial Times that they put the prices of manufacturing products in China, rice cookies with spices from 10% to 50% from the last increase in prices.
More price increases are during pipeline, as most owners of Chinese companies expected their inventory before the price hikes are exhausted within two months.
The WU of the C&A supermarket said that Chinese products could “increase” as soon as the market is starting to rely on imports subject to higher prices.
“We cannot live with a rate of 145% for a single day,” he said.
