() The first major negotiations between the United States and China since President Donald Trump sparked a trade war will take place this weekend in Switzerland but some companies are already finding workarounds to keep business going.
In Texas and elsewhere in the U.S., developers are seeing increased interest from Chinese companies looking to relocate, the South China Morning Post first reported. Tariffs against China are currently 145%, while China’s on the U.S. total 125%.
A wave of Chinese companies is reportedly rushing to move manufacturing west to stave off Trump’s tariffs and the impact they will bring.
“The United States accounts for nearly 95% of our orders. It’s not a market we can afford to lose,” Chinese business owner Ryan Zhou told the Post.
Yasheng Huang, professor of global economics and management at MIT, told relocating a Chinese company is a tall order.
“It’s not that easy to produce in this country. It’s very easy to consume, but it’s not that easy to produce,” Huang said.
For many of the relocating companies, the goal is to remain competitive and for some, simply to survive under the Trump administration’s restrictive trade policies.
Huang said it could take years, even decades, to grow a successful business in the U.S. with reliable supply chains and a solid labor force, citing complicated labor and environmental laws and a lesser industrial ecosystem.
