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I'm in Europe. My wife buys a lot of stuff directly from China via their internal/domestic marketplaces 1688.com and TaoBao.com. (Better prices, better servic

I'm in Europe. My wife buys a lot of stuff directly from China via their internal/domestic marketplaces 1688.com and TaoBao.com. (Better prices, better service, just use a translator app and ship to a freight forwarder.) Currently, those domestic/internal marketplaces are being flooded with cheap stuff. Like $5 jackets of very decent quality. Now's the best-ever time to be a Chinese consumer. (Or one with a freight forwarder and o3 handling translation, as long as you're not in the USA.) I don't know how hard the manufacturers themselves are complaining, but to some extent you have to imagine that they anticipated this and are looking to recalibrate production and reroute goods.

9dev 1y ago
International trade is always a bit delayed due to the volume of stocked goods, and those en route on container ships. The effects will become visible soon though.
folli 1y ago
Any recommendations regarding freight forwarders?
- IG_Semmelweiss 1y ago
  I'm interested in this as well
- HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
  Tariffs are based on country of manufacture, not where they were shipped from, so freight forwarding would only make a difference if this is not truthfully declared.
  - glimshe 1y ago
    Could someone in Mexico order a Chinese product, take it out of the box, put it in a Mexican made box and export it as a Mexican product?
    - rvnx 1y ago
      Yes, difficult to prove. Happens all the time with China->Vietnam->US.
  - xnx 1y ago
    21st century US is discovering smuggling and the black market.
rendaw 1y ago
Do you mean that because those aren't going to the US, the excess stock is being listed on Chinese marketplaces (and at low prices due to being excess)? Were goods sold in China much more expensive previously?
- A_D_E_P_T 1y ago
  Yeah, prices on goods in China have gone down noticeably. I mean, it's always cheap, but now it's pretty ridiculous. I was chatting with my wife about this, and we came to the conclusion that 1000RMB in China gets you more stuff than 1000EUR in Europe. And, honestly, there's not that much of a quality difference.
zdragnar 1y ago
> how hard the manufacturers themselves are complaining China is facing an economic situation similar to the COVID lockdowns. The export economy is collapsing, and factories are engaged in "suicidal price wars" just to get a little bit of money from their stock. https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/29/china-us-tariff-protests-workers-wages/ https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/29/china-us-tariff...
- coldcode 1y ago
  Exporting to the US is 15% of Chinese exports. Even if that goes to 0% it will not devastate Chinese businesses. It will hurt some there, but if your US business imports a larger percentage of its raw materials or parts from China, you are out of business as there are few alternates. China can sell to any other country to make up some of the loss.
- lossolo 1y ago
  > China is facing an economic situation similar to the COVID lockdowns That sentence sounds like an exaggeration—if not outright propaganda. I mean, will their 15% of exports to the US impact their economy? Will it cause a slight slowdown? Possibly. But people often forget that around $50–100 billion worth of exports were excluded from the tariffs. Do you have any sources other than those funded by the U.S. government—especially ones without a history like this? "On May 10, 2020, RFA published a news article titled "China Border Inspection Strengthens Inspection of Entry and Exit Nationals, International Students Had Their Passports Cut," [83] which contained a screenshot of a Reddit post by a user who said his passport had been clipped by China's border inspections. However, it was later revealed that the user's attached picture was stolen from someone else. The news triggered criticism from mainland Chinese media, saying that the claims stated in the news were incongruent with the situation.[84] On 11 May 2021, Fact-checker First Draft News found that Chinese- and Cantonese-language versions of Radio Free Asia (RFA) published anti-vaccine misinformation regarding the Chinese vaccines, particularly the ones manufactured by Sinopharm and Sinovac. The investigation found the RFA articles amplified misleading claims about the vaccine programs, and its stories were reprinted by popular tabloid newspapers to reinforce the anti-vaccine misinformation. The RFA site did not cover suspected adverse events related to Western-made vaccines. Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, program director at the National Cancer Institute, believed these articles caused vaccine hesitancy and global public health risks. Masato Kajimoto, a misinformation expert and journalism professor at the University of Hong Kong, suggested the articles were biased toward anti-Beijing messages and repeated unsubstantiated claims made by unreliable sources, such as The Epoch Times.[85]"
maxglute 1y ago
Without US demand, Aliexpress is shipping from PRC to CAN in like 7-10 days, which is faster than Amazon without prime. I haven't had to freight forward from Taobao for a bit, I imagine the same.

9dev 1y ago

International trade is always a bit delayed due to the volume of stocked goods, and those en route on container ships. The effects will become visible soon though.

folli 1y ago

Any recommendations regarding freight forwarders?

IG_Semmelweiss 1y ago
I'm interested in this as well
HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago
Tariffs are based on country of manufacture, not where they were shipped from, so freight forwarding would only make a difference if this is not truthfully declared.
- glimshe 1y ago
  Could someone in Mexico order a Chinese product, take it out of the box, put it in a Mexican made box and export it as a Mexican product?
  - rvnx 1y ago
    Yes, difficult to prove. Happens all the time with China->Vietnam->US.
- xnx 1y ago
  21st century US is discovering smuggling and the black market.

rendaw 1y ago

Do you mean that because those aren't going to the US, the excess stock is being listed on Chinese marketplaces (and at low prices due to being excess)? Were goods sold in China much more expensive previously?

A_D_E_P_T 1y ago
Yeah, prices on goods in China have gone down noticeably. I mean, it's always cheap, but now it's pretty ridiculous. I was chatting with my wife about this, and we came to the conclusion that 1000RMB in China gets you more stuff than 1000EUR in Europe. And, honestly, there's not that much of a quality difference.

zdragnar 1y ago

> how hard the manufacturers themselves are complaining China is facing an economic situation similar to the COVID lockdowns. The export economy is collapsing, and factories are engaged in "suicidal price wars" just to get a little bit of money from their stock. https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/29/china-us-tariff-protests-workers-wages/ https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/29/china-us-tariff...

coldcode 1y ago
Exporting to the US is 15% of Chinese exports. Even if that goes to 0% it will not devastate Chinese businesses. It will hurt some there, but if your US business imports a larger percentage of its raw materials or parts from China, you are out of business as there are few alternates. China can sell to any other country to make up some of the loss.
lossolo 1y ago
> China is facing an economic situation similar to the COVID lockdowns That sentence sounds like an exaggeration—if not outright propaganda. I mean, will their 15% of exports to the US impact their economy? Will it cause a slight slowdown? Possibly. But people often forget that around $50–100 billion worth of exports were excluded from the tariffs. Do you have any sources other than those funded by the U.S. government—especially ones without a history like this? "On May 10, 2020, RFA published a news article titled "China Border Inspection Strengthens Inspection of Entry and Exit Nationals, International Students Had Their Passports Cut," [83] which contained a screenshot of a Reddit post by a user who said his passport had been clipped by China's border inspections. However, it was later revealed that the user's attached picture was stolen from someone else. The news triggered criticism from mainland Chinese media, saying that the claims stated in the news were incongruent with the situation.[84] On 11 May 2021, Fact-checker First Draft News found that Chinese- and Cantonese-language versions of Radio Free Asia (RFA) published anti-vaccine misinformation regarding the Chinese vaccines, particularly the ones manufactured by Sinopharm and Sinovac. The investigation found the RFA articles amplified misleading claims about the vaccine programs, and its stories were reprinted by popular tabloid newspapers to reinforce the anti-vaccine misinformation. The RFA site did not cover suspected adverse events related to Western-made vaccines. Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, program director at the National Cancer Institute, believed these articles caused vaccine hesitancy and global public health risks. Masato Kajimoto, a misinformation expert and journalism professor at the University of Hong Kong, suggested the articles were biased toward anti-Beijing messages and repeated unsubstantiated claims made by unreliable sources, such as The Epoch Times.[85]"

maxglute 1y ago

Without US demand, Aliexpress is shipping from PRC to CAN in like 7-10 days, which is faster than Amazon without prime. I haven't had to freight forward from Taobao for a bit, I imagine the same.