Posted on 04/25/2025 6:26:01 PM PDT by RandFan
So far, American consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning.
With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether.
Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks without a change of course.
The three companies who attended the meeting – Walmart, Target and Home Depot – are among the most exposed to the president’s policies, which include tariffs of up to 145pc on Chinese goods and higher port fees for Chinese-made vessels.
Walmart sources roughly 60pc of its imports from China, including clothing, electronics and toys, according to Reuters’ research, while around 50pc of Target’s suppliers are also based there.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Yeah, I don’t buy it.
Agreed.
The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry commodities, was up for a third straight session on Friday, rising 1.5% to a new high since April 7 at 1,373 points, on higher demand across all vessel segments.
The capesize index, which transports 150,000-ton cargoes like iron ore and coal, also advanced for the third day, rising 2.3% to 1,889 points; and the panamax index, which usually tracks vessels carrying 60,000-70,000 tons of coal or grains, rose for the eighth straight session, increasing 1.5% to 1,392 points.
Among smaller vessels, the supramax index eased one point to 977 points. For the week, the benchmark index rose nearly 9%, notching its second straight weekly gain.
Empty of cheap Chinese junk? That’s fine.
I'll deal with some empty shelves and do without. No problem.
Dems have been trying to create hysteria ever since Trump got elected.
It’s getting old and their pawns are so psycho now they haven’t got a rational neuron left in their empty skulls.
Leftist dems are brain eating amoebas.
I don’t believe this and, even if true, the Chinese are in worse shape than we are. If we are not getting Chinese goods, they are NOT selling and shipping the goods. They are completely reliant on exports.
The Chinese are already suffering economically. They are blustering and threatening but they have big problems.
If the entire winning argument is which country is willing to make their people suffer the most, we’re screwed, from the start.
I need my heavy duty pneumatic slide whistles! The 18 volt cordless hammers, whale gutting & mohel knives, and the yellow plastic D cell fly swatters that zap gnats, but fles? It just stunes their beebers, hmmm.
I still need them.
Maybe at Harbor Freight.
Industry can tool up extremely quickly when need be. We went from A depression to supplying weapons for every Allied partner & winning wars in 2 theatres in less than 4 years.
Not getting a lot of disposable junk from China means India & Vietnam will send their disposable junk as a replacement.
Everything China sends us can be replicated. After all they stole all the technology to begin with.
Next shot across the bow is revoking all Chinese students Visas & sending them back to their homeland. They are all CCP spies. Every last one of them.
I’m surprised the needle hasn’t snapped with this BS claim.
America produces food surplus, gasoline, water supply, electricity. We can live without cheap plastic & electronic stuff for a few months until other countries gear up to produce cheap stuff. India has more workers than China and average age in much younger than China.
As long as there’s food we can get by without shopping sprees for awhile.
No one ever died because they couldn’t buy a CCP subsidized 60 inch TV dirt cheap.
MAKE.IT.HERE.GUNGA.
I heard a horror story about a women that went to Walmart and couldn’t find a cutting board to buy. She almost died and was suffering terribly. Poor thing. /sarc
I did, but I got better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.