Women who wear blue hair are greeted touches on the luxurious pink pig and orange stuffed foxes, before throwing giant piles at the Maria Liao factory in southern China. They will be trapped and shipped to the United States, where many customers of Mrs. Liao are based.
The factory is quieter than it is. Requests decrease this year, as Mrs. Lyau’s customers are frequent in the face of a series of customs tariffs that President Trump has placed on products coming from China, which is likely to come another round of this week. The duties have raised small companies in the United States that depend on factories in China to build and sell the things they design and sell.
The customs tariff also frequents the other side of the ocean in two floors such as MS. games. Liao Dongguan Yarunli.
“We are helpless,” said Ms. Lyau, 33, who runs the factory with her older brother. “I don’t know how the next quarter will be.”
Mrs. Lyau is one of the millions of people in China who sew, manufacture, collect and collect games, clothes, tools and cars that Americans use every day. The work that companies do to make and sell things to families in the United States quickly and at a cost.
Thanks to its surplus in World Trade of $ 1 trillion, China is still the power of manufacturing in the world. But Mrs. Liao’s struggles show how Mr. Trump’s tariff, which includes the base of 20 percent on all goods, challenges a long reality in China. The United States may not be the main destination for the products made by small companies such as Mrs. Liao.
One of her clients, who sell doll games based on characters from a book, recently asked for a 20 percent reduction in prices – which Mrs. Liao said she could not absorb. It achieves a 30 percent profit margin on the goods that produce it, a pillow that allows the volatility of the costs of materials and employment. Ms. Layo said that this sharp reduction in prices would erase most of her profits, which makes it difficult to continue to work.
However, it was not easy to say no. Last year, this customer requested 25,000 game dolls, one of the largest individual requests that Mrs. Liao received. She said this year, the total requests decreased by about 30 percent.
For the Chinese companies that are working hard and that have long linked their prosperity with American customers’ demands, Mr. Trump’s goal is to cut trade with China forcing a more urgent question: What next?
It is difficult for Mrs. Liao to answer. For beginners, American companies make up 30 percent of their export work. It also appreciates the cultural benefits it gained from trade with the United States.
She has changed work with American works, her view of everything about how her actions do how to see her in society.
Mrs. Liao started her factory with her brother in 2019 after five years of work in another game factory and help finding new customers. She said she was more conservative when interacting with customers. But then I started working with American business owners who were direct and open about everything, all the way to their personal lives.
Mrs. Liao said that one of the customers in particular had a great impact on her life.
Its headquarters Irika Campbell in Phoenix The company, be a heart, was an agent of Mrs. Liao from the beginning. The orders of Mrs. Campbell for Jesus and Mary formed dolls of tenths of Mrs. Liao’s work.
At that time, Mrs. Layo and Mrs. Campbell, 36, gave birth to their first children. Their personal life has become intertwined with talks on commercial cooperation and product designs. Mrs. Liao said that she was the first time that a woman knew wandering around the duties of the family and her own work. Mrs. Lyau said in their talks, Mrs. Campbell was sometimes describing the time of midnight to draw a design for the next product.
Mrs. Liao said that seeing a woman wandering at work and home gave her confidence in work after the birth of her daughter.
A few months ago, Mrs. Layo sent Mrs. Campbell’s message to tell her that the work was really slow, weighing it over the worsening trade tensions between China and the United States. She was trying to know how to keep things standing on his feet. In response, Mrs. Campbell shared her challenges. Mrs. Campbell again wrote: “I am kind.” One of her employees left unexpectedly and that Mrs. Campbell recently gave birth to her third child. She said, “Motherhood kicks my ass.”
Then she had an idea. Mrs. Liao can take over some of the employee, the sources of materials and communicate with other factories in China. “I did it well,” said Ms. Campbell.
When Mrs. Campbell finally put her production order for 2025 with Mrs. Liao a few weeks ago, half of her order was last year due to uncertainty about definitions and stagnation, something that Mr. Trump said is possible.
Currently, Mrs. Campbell plans to bear most of the definitions and pass some costs to her customers. But if the customs tariff exceeds 20 percent, she will have to speak to Mrs. Liao about what to do after that.
It will be a difficult conversation. Mrs. Campbell said that she did not feel comfortable in asking her Chinese partner at costs that Mrs. Liao did not have control.
“We often deal with the same small pressure and we have to move a lot,” said Ms. Campbell. “People love to create this gap, but we are just similar and have just born in different countries.”
For Mrs. Liao, if everyone raises their costs to reduce the blow of definitions, this may lead to a situation that prefers not to face: “We may not be able to serve American customers.”
for me The research contributed.