‘Export rush’ grips China as businesses scramble to make the most of tariff pause

A surprise breakthrough in US-China trade tensions has unleashed a flurry of activity across Chinese factories and ports as American and Chinese companies rush to make the most of a 90-day rollback of heavy tariffs announced earlier this week.

A surprise breakthrough in US-China trade tensions has unleashed a flurry of activity across Chinese factories and ports as American and Chinese companies rush to make the most of a 90-day rollback of heavy tariffs announced earlier this week. For Niki Ye, a salesperson in southern China who sources toys for sale on Amazon, a 30% spike in orders since that announcement has meant her company is staffing up to meet demand. “And this is only the first week,” she said. Liu Changhai, a sales manager at an export-oriented agency in eastern China that specializes in home furnishings, said sales now match those during a typical peak season – but there would be a delay in sending goods. “The new orders have not been manufactured yet and are not ready for shipment,” he told CNN. Meanwhile, ports are about to start humming as companies rush to ship out inventory that had been held back during weeks of rising trade tension. Bookings for shipping containers from China to the United States have spiked almost 300% in the seven days ending May 13, compared with those in the week ending May 5, according to container-tracking software provider Vizion. That’s all a radical shift from last month, when a rapid, tit-for-tat escalation of US-China tariffs initiated by US President Donald Trump drove duties so high that trade between the two once deeply intertwined economies largely ground to an abrupt halt.