From her house in Phoenix, Erica Campbell is waiting for a cargo ship from China to deliver a mission of thousands of Jesus rattle dolls, pewter Easter eggs, baby-waddle blankets with religious theme and 15,000 packages of Jesus, medicinal connection.
Mrs. Campbell, 36, the owner of Be A Heart, a company for Catholic goods, paid the Chinese factories that produce the articles months ago. The boxes were loaded in a container before President Trump imposed a new rate of 10 percent for all Chinese imports on February 1 1. She said she probably avoided an extra duty, but she was afraid that there would be more American rates.
“I can't find out what will happen,” said Mrs. Campbell. “I'm on a high alert.”
Mr. Trump's targeting on China has stirred millions of small companies. For decades, American companies have designed products in the United States and uses Chinese factories to produce the goods efficiently and cheaply. It is how Apple produces iPhones, and how an entrepreneur like Mrs. Campbell, a mother of three, has a company that she said it generates $ 2 million a year in selling her kitchen.
The New York Times has heard from nearly 100 companies that import from China about how the president's rates influenced them. They are a cross-section of the aim of companies that are sewn into the global economy: companies that make greeting cards, board games, outdoor footwear, hangers, digital photo frames, coffee equipment, toys, stained glass windows and adapted electronics.
Various themes emerged. American companies, not Chinese suppliers, shot up the rates for the rates. Many companies said they should increase the prices to compensate for the costs if they hadn't done yet. Some spoke about a feeling of business paralysis: they were afraid to make plans in the midst of the unpredictable stream of new rates, for fear of the risk of moving the production from China, because no country seemed immune.
The turning of domestic alternatives was usually not viable because they were more expensive, the quality was inferior and there were fewer options. Finally, it would be completely reinventing their supply chain a huge enterprise for the companies that require time and costs that they cannot easily save.
Business owners are at least confronted with a cost increase of 10 percent in the goods they bring from China – or components for articles compiled in the United States or end products made in Chinese facilities. They can receive an account when the goods arrive in the port, or the extra costs can be bundled in shipping costs. Anyway, the entrepreneurs said, in many cases the money would be out of their pockets.
And that can only be the beginning.
Mr. Trump promised last week to put another 10 percent tax on all Chinese imports from Tuesday, on the same day that the rates at Mexico and Canada will start. The status of both countries as important stations for Chinese goods and the prospect of retribution gives owners of small companies a different thing to worry about. From 12 March there will be a 25 percent duty on imported steel and aluminum – two metals whose production china dominates. American trade officials propose to impose reimbursements on Chinese ships that enter American ports, which may increase the shipping costs of China.
Mr. Trump said that the rate of 10 percent was 'an opening salvo'. Last year on the campaign track he promised a rate of up to 60 percent.
Even with 10 percent, the rate is a heavy blow for Julianna Rae, a company that sells high-end silk sleeping clothing, because all its products are made in China. The company is located in Burlington, Massachusetts and designs silk robes, pajamas and nightdress that are produced in China. It imports the goods in the United States and sells them on its website and on Amazon.
The owners of the company, Bill Keef and July Lee, said they were hunting to tackle the cost increases that Mr Trump's import tax imposed them. They had imported a lot of inventory before the rates came into force, awaiting seasonal Christmas and Valentine's Day question. Mrs Lee also investigates whether he should postpone some shipments in the hope that Mr. Trump could reverse the course of his rates.
Saying orders is a risk. Mrs. Lee, 56, is concerned about not having products that are available to customers. Her Chinese suppliers, who all squeeze a slow domestic economy, will be tense for longer periods to keep inventory.
“How much bet can you push on it?” Said Mrs. Lee, referring to her suppliers, with whom she had grown in the area after she had worked together for more than a decade. “The uncertainty is really difficult on both sides.”
Ultimately, the extra costs may have to be passed on to the consumer. Mr Keefe, 71, said that the price of a popular Silk Pajamas set, which sells for $ 300, could increase $ 15.
However, the 20-year-old company has little choice than to stay in China. Silk production facilities exist in other countries, such as Sri Lanka, India, South Korea and Thailand, but “the best machines, the best expertise, the possibility of producing quality goods at a good price is located in China,” said Mr Keefe.
For companies that are open to moving production to the United States, the challenge is finding a factory.
For 18 years, the San Francisco company Humangear by Chris Miksovsky has designed its outdoor and travel products in the United States and produced in Chinese factories.
But remembering the sting of rates during the first Trump presidency, Mr. Miksovsky, 56, wanted to see if the domestic production was now more logical. He simply wanted to start with the best -selling but easiest product from Humangear: a plastic user game with a fork on one side and a spoon on the other used for camping.
He e -mailed six companies, four of which never responded. The two who have shown an interest asked many questions about product specifications. After Mr Miksovsky had answered every investigation, one company no longer answered his e -mails and the other answered weeks later, but did not give a quote.
“It is very good to say that we will place these rates to bring jobs back to America,” he said. “That assumes that America has the opportunity to make your product, and, more importantly, it assumes that it is interested in making that product.”
Mr Miksovsky said he was looking at new production locations, possibly in Thailand or Vietnam, but that it was difficult to predict the countries that Mr Trump would then aim.
“Let's say you spend all the time, effort and money to move your production to another country – who says Trump wakes up and that morning he says:” We're going to place 60 percent rates at Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa or your country “? He said.
Shawn Ernst, 39, diversified the suppliers for his family's company, Snap Supply, during the first Trump presidency to a place that he thought would be safe for the increasing costs of a trade war with Beijing: Mexico.
But now the 45-year-old family business, located in St. Charles, Illinois. The repair components of the company are made from foreign steel and aluminum, so it is confronted with higher costs of a new rate of 25 percent on those materials. Moreover, he may have to start paying an extra rate when he imports his products from Mexico. He said it was not clear whether he would be burdened twice, but the possibility of that keeps me awake at night. “
Mr Ernst, who runs the company with his brother, said that his Mexican suppliers were willing to absorb a 5 percent cost increase. Snap Supply, however, will have to pass on the rest of the cost peak to customers. He said that an oven replacement area of $ 23 could cost $ 31 soon. If SNAP -offering prices too much increases, he fears that his company will not become competitive with Chinese companies that sell similar parts on Amazon.
He is also afraid that the rates can force his business to fire some of his 45 employees, he said.
“We have never struck ourselves so much by something that a president has done,” he said. “It is so frustrating to see what is actually happening.”
Mrs. Campbell, the seller of religious goods, said she is considering passing on some of the extra costs of rates to its customers. However, she is reluctant because her products are not essential and her customers are families such as hers that are already dealing with higher costs for groceries and gas.
The ghost of even higher Chinese import tariffs has her panic in panic.
“I don't think people understand what that looks like,” she said. “Not just for my company, but in life – how are we going to pay this because everything comes from China?”
