{"id":9483,"date":"2025-05-12T01:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T05:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/05\/12\/a-shipping-change-might-help-small-businesses-if-not-for-trumps-trade-wars\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T01:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T05:24:21","slug":"a-shipping-change-might-help-small-businesses-if-not-for-trumps-trade-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/05\/12\/a-shipping-change-might-help-small-businesses-if-not-for-trumps-trade-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shipping Change Might Help Small Businesses if Not for Trump\u2019s Trade Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amid a steady stream of new trade policies in President Trump\u2019s first three months in office, there is one that Andy Musliner, who owns a small toy business in Maryland, can get behind.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the ending of a duty-free loophole for cheap goods from China.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump this month scrapped a provision that had allowed packages imported into the United States from mainland China or Hong Kong to avoid tariffs and other customs requirements if they were valued under $800. The loophole previously faced bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers and pushback from the Biden administration, in part over concern that it was enabling fentanyl to flow into the United States unchecked.<\/p>\n

It allowed the fast-fashion giants Shein and Temu, which rely on Chinese vendors, to gain significant market share in recent years by evading tariffs on low-value products shipped directly to consumers.<\/p>\n

Mr. Musliner\u2019s company, InRoad Toys, has been crushed by the rise of these Chinese e-commerce giants, he said. His business, in Crofton, Md., sells road tape for toy cars \u2014 which is, as it sounds, tape that looks like a road \u2014 all of which is manufactured in bulk in China and shipped in containers to the United States. His business was booming, with double-digit sales growth several years in a row. That came to an end in 2023, when Temu\u2019s popularity in the United States exploded after the company\u2019s high-profile Super Bowl commercial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Musliner\u2019s sales suddenly plummeted. American customers started to buy Temu\u2019s knockoffs of a similar roll of road tape for $1.50, far cheaper than his $9 product. Within months, his revenue fell 30 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo amount of cost cutting is going to get me to that price point,\u201d he said. \u201cI manufacture in China, I import my goods, I sell them on Amazon for a price that takes into account all of those costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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