Well, this doesn’t really seem like what President Donald Trump would’ve wanted.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Chinese retailers Temu and Shein have seen a big uptick in sales as people in the United States look to beat Trump’s tariffs. The outlet added that shoppers, in particular, stocked “products like makeup brushes and home appliances before tariff-led price increases set in.”
Shein reportedly saw a 29 percent increase in revenue in March compared with last year as well as a 38 percent growth through the first 11 days of April. Temu, meanwhile, saw increases of 46 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in the same time period, according to Bloomberg.
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Trump’s tariffs have been the source of fear and consternation in the U.S. Prices have already begun to rise as the stock market has taken a steep tumble. It makes sense that folks would attempt to buy items from China ahead of prices getting too high. While Trump may have paused his administration’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs for other nations, China is a major exception. There remains a 145 percent — yes, 145 percent — tariff on Chinese goods. At first, it seemed there may be exceptions for electronics, but Trump has since indicated that may not be the case.
Ngozi Ikonjo Iweala, the World Trade Organization director general, called the “decoupling” of the U.S. and Chinese economies “a phenomenon that is really worrying to me.” She said she expected trade to fall between 81 and 91 percent between the two nations. It tracks, then, that folks rushed to Shein and Temu ahead of that fall-off.
