Catenaa, Thursday, April 10, 2025- Chinese companies that sell products on Amazon are preparing to hike prices for the US market or quit it with the ongoing trade war between China and the US.
Head of Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, China’s largest e-commerce association, Wang Xin said that it will be very hard for anyone to survive in the US market with President Donald Trump’s unprecedented tariff hikes.
Trump said on Wednesday he would raise tariffs on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level already in effect, escalating the high-stakes confrontation between the two world’s largest economies.
“This isn’t just a tax issue, it’s that the entire cost structure gets entirely overwhelmed,” Wang Xin said to Reuters, adding that the tariffs could also lead to customs delays and higher logistics costs.
“So for all of us in the cross-border e-commerce business today, this is truly an unprecedented blow.”
Some sellers are looking to increase prices in the US while others are looking to find new markets, Wang said.
China is home to around half of Amazon’s sellers, with over 100,000 Amazon businesses registered in the southern city of Shenzhen alone, generating annual revenues of $35.3 billion, according to e-commerce services provider SmartScout.
China also hosts the manufacturing bases of other major e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu. Imports and exports involving cross-border e-commerce were worth 2.63 trillion yuan ($358 billion) last year, according to China’s State Council.
No other country comes even close to U.S. consumption power, significantly limiting the production the rest of the world can absorb and raising the risk of intensifying price wars among Chinese exporters squeezing profitability.
Given the severe impact on China’s small enterprises and manufacturers, the tariffs risk leading to a rapid acceleration in China’s unemployment rate, Wang said.
