China tariffs

After months of back and forth, President Trump says a deal with China is done.

Shipping is ramping in parts of southern Asia as companies scramble to keep a buffer on inventories. How sustainable and effective is this strategy, and will it substantially mitigate the influence of prohibitive tariffs on China?

The Trump administration is ratcheting up regulation of e-commerce shipments from China by removing a pathway for duty-free, expedited entry that critics say has been exploited by drug gangs and counterfeiters to smuggle illegal products into the U.S.

In this edition: Helping shippers prepare for impending tariffs and some restored service post-Hurricane Helene

Policies instituted over the past four years during the Biden-Harris administration will likely be reversed or sped up – many to the benefit of the trucking industry.

Donald Trump claimed his trade war got the Chinese to bend to U.S. will. But the “historic” trade deal he negotiated didn’t turn out so well.

If you thought President Joe Biden would quickly reverse Trump’s controversial trade policy toward China, guess again. U.S. importers aren’t happy.

A year and a half after COVID emerged in Wuhan, China’s exporters, liners, shipyards and container factories are all booming.

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Mexico remains top US trade partner; second USMCA labor complaint lodged at Mexican factory; Hyliion expands Texas headquarters; and avocado imports from Mexico up 26%.

China still holds the title of the world’s manufacturing floor, but business challenges are leading more companies to source production in other countries.

FreightWaves has been honored with 9 Azbee Awards of Excellence, including four Gold Awards.

United Airlines and Delta are dipping their toes back into the China market. But with COVID-19 and political tensions rising it won’t be a surprise if they are stopped again.

Air cargo and cross-border trade could be unintended victims of the dispute between the U.S. and China over access by their respective passenger airlines.

What the war of words between the U.S. and China means to ocean shipping.

The United States has plunged into a recession and imports may never recover, says the former Trailer Bridge CEO.

Lori Ann LaRocco writes about the impact of coronavirus on maritime trade between China and the U.S.

The country’s Customs Tariff Commission, which announced the move Thursday, said the reductions will take effect Feb. 14.

The Chinese government said the tariff reductions will help expand imports of key consumer products.

Cummins Inc. is winding down its centennial anniversary as the trucking industry it serves also slows. But the company has a history of emerging stronger from downturns.

Between February 2018 and September 2019, U.S. consumers and businesses spent an additional $38 billion on products due to tariffs on Chinese goods, Tariffs Hurt the Heartland said.

CEO Chris Spear leading a behind-the-scenes approach to influencing White House.

Larger fleets positioned to reap benefits from carrier bankruptcies

President Trump announced that the U.S. will delay the next round of scheduled tariff increases.

Henry Byers writes about the latest twists and turns in the U.S.-China trade war.

How Flexport is managing the challenges of todays air cargo environment

VLCC rates are up over 200% month-on-month. Trans-Pacific box shipping rates are down 11% since the beginning of August.

Can listed shipping shares break out of their slump before the U.S.-China trade dispute is resolved?

Chinese tariffs are impacting American agriculture. But declines in exports to other countries are also hurting American agriculture.

Stalco, a Toronto third-party logistics provider, takes advantage of duty-free limits to legally fulfill online orders of Chinese goods to consumers in the United States without incurring President Trump’s trade-war tariffs.

Goods like clothes and toys are on the proposed tariff list.

The U.S.-China trade war has dropped trade volumes between the two countries to date in 2019. One result – Mexico is now the #1 trade partner of the U.S.

The new tariffs, announced a day after the Fed cut rates, will affect mostly consumer goods.

Flexport’s customers have seen average landed unit costs rise by 30 percent due to tariffs.

ACT Research says the trucking industry meets the definition of being in a technical recession as all major metrics it tracks have declined for two consecutive quarters.

Latest U.S. trade data for air cargo reveals a lot of noteworthy developments to watch going forward

Cathy Roberson writes about Vietnam’s growth as a manufacturing center as manufacturing moves from China to other nations in Southeast Asia.

No single country can absorb the trade flow from China to the U.S., and likely contenders are already growing faster than capacity.

The Trump administration is considering levying tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese exports to the United States so far unaffected by duties. Freight Intel, FreightWaves’ proprietary research group, has just published a study warning that such a move would disrupt trade flows far beyond what has occurred so far. Freight Intel Group research […]

It appears that Chinese retail investors are moving capital out of the country in response to the devaluation of the yuan.

Port of Virginia sees tariffs putting its billion-dollar expansion at risk.

Trucking could get hit “very hard” by an economic recession, ATA warns

The countdown for bringing Chinese goods into the U.S. ahead of new import duties is now underway. But it’s unclear whether the sequel will match last year’s container crush due to high inventories and sourcing changes. As FreightWaves reported, last week’s breakdown in trade talks between the two world’s largest economies pushed President Donald Trump […]

Beijing has sworn to institute countermeasures to combat a huge increase in tariffs, from 15 percent to 25 percent, that have been imposed by Washington on $200 billion worth of a wide range of Chinese goods. A set of high-level, last-minute, talks yesterday to postpone or prevent the tariffs failed.

The uncertainty over whether and when the U.S. and China will reach a trade agreement this year is creating a cloudy outlook for grain volumes this fall.

“We expect uncertainty to persist in the grain market due to the foreign tariffs,” said Kenny Rocker, Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) executive vice president for marketing and sales.

Political tensions in the Washington-Beijing bilateral relationship are making the China-based U.S. business community uneasy. Tariffs are being blamed for driving business confidence down, decreasing investment and for re-routing Asia-Pacific supply chains.

A solid year with more on tap for 2019, Atlas says.

A 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods destined for the U.S. may get delayed again, but supply chain uncertainty persists.

Upheaval caused by the U.S.-China trade war has some freight interests uneasy about giving Trump more tariff power.

Missing USDA data on wheat stockpiles has traders reacting cautiously.

Among news of poor performance in the Chinese economy, one of the most distressing signals for foreign retailers and manufacturers is Apple’s announcement on Wednesday that the company had reduced revenue expectations due to poor iPhone sales in China.

Supply and purchasing managers look for geopolitical clarity.

Dry bulk carriers outperformed the S&P 500 by a significant margin today, with Star Bulk Carriers, the largest publicly traded fleet in the segment, gaining 5.1% on the day.

How much volume is POLA pulling from Q1 activity?

Capacity constraints, strong demand, and chaotic tariff-related traffic pushed transpacific containers rates to new heights, but the current inbound container surge, unrelated to consumer demand, will create a steeper drop off in Q1 2019.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation says not to travel in or to the state; Walmart grabs a 200K square foot foothold in NYC; the IMF says British economy will contract if no deal on Brexit; Freightos raises $45M; global seaborne coal trade grows 4%; Tesla’s having a hard time delivering cars.

Transpacific container rates continue to gain momentum; UPS files blockchain patent applications; Uber is uncertain about self-driving cars; Elon Musk doubles-down on ‘no sleep’; cautious optimism for US-China trade talks lifts equities markets; container lines expect profits in the back half of 2018.

The summer slump continues; Steve Eisman explains why he’s shorting Tesla; Walmart discovers that last mile delivery is hard; once-exported U.S. cherries find domestic customers; oil trade routes are threatened by geopolitical risk.

With Chinese tariffs on cherry imports rising to 50%, the Pacific Northwest braces for the impact on the 2018 season.

Trump’s new tariffs are beginning to hit less like strategic targets, and more like an indiscriminate bombing campaign. For all the drama, what’s the end game?

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., says he and others are “crafting” legislation requiring congressional authority over levying tariffs in response to President Donald Trump’s imposition of stiff steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Mnuchin is running a full court press to make Chinese tariffs, aluminum sanctions, and NAFTA renegotiation the least disruptive as possible.