US firms boost imports ahead of Trump tariffs

After some businesses heaped up shipments of clothing, toys, furniture, and electronics in anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to apply new tariffs that would reignite a trade war between the world’s economic heavyweights, US imports from China ended the year strongly.

On January 20, Trump, who has vowed to impose tariffs ranging from 10 percent to 60 percent on Chinese goods, will become president of the United States. Trump mostly targeted Chinese parts and components during his first term in office. Trade analysts and economists expect that finished goods may be subject to the next round of tariffs.

According to Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC in Hong Kong, “as importers seek to front-run potential tariffs on consumer items, there has been an uptick in the exports of final goods from China to the US.”

On Monday, Chinese trade officials reported that December shipments reached all-time highs.

At a news conference in Beijing, Lv Daliang, the Chinese customs administration’s spokesperson, stated that the significant increase was partly due to worries about growing trade protectionism.