Business Journalist, BBC News
Deena Ghazarian operated only a year when the trade policy of the first term of President Donald Trump sent her company to her tail.
It was 2019 and her company based in California, Auster, was just agreed to provide several large American merchants with her top audio and video accessories mostly produced in China.
Then Trump imposed commendable tariffs on China, and overnight Deena was paid 25% of the topping on each cable and component she had previously imported – from scratch.
She was forced to absorb the costs and thought for a while she would break.
“I literally thought I would start and finish my job in less than a year,” she says. “I spent all this time, money and effort and have something like this blind, it was shocking.”
The company has been rumored, but like numerous other American companies, it now finds itself in a strikingly similar situation.
Ever since he returned to the duty in January, Mr Trump has collected tariffs to all goods imported from China by 20% and put a 25% tax on Canadian and Mexican products, only to delay some of them until April.
The president says he wants to force these countries to do more to stop the flows of illegal drugs and migrants to America, to bring back more production to the US and to address what he considers an unjust trade imbalance.
But duties are much wider scope than last time, when they gradually gradually gradually, and many products received exemptions.
Goods such as smartphones, tables and tablets are now for the first time tariffs, while taxes on others have climbed more.
“The US meetings have to pay these taxes, not exporters,” says Ed fastwa, Vice President of the International Trade in Association of Consumer Technology (CTA), a North American trade body that represents more than 1,200 technological companies.
“It will suffer by US companies and consumers.”
Companies like Mrs. Ghazarian are especially exposed. China is still the supplier of electronic products number one in the United States, and imports amounted to $ 146 billion (£ 112 billion) in 2023, According to official data.
In the meantime, 87% of the imports of the video game console arrived from China, and the year, 78% of smartphones, 79% of laptops and tablets and two -thirds of monitors, says Cta.
Although many US companies, such as Auster, diversify their supply chains from China since the first term of Mr Trump, countries like Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam still do not offer the same production capabilities and expertise.
At the same time, the US president is now aiming for Mexico – another major electronics supplier. While domestic production in the United States has increased, partly due to the tariff, it is still limited by higher costs and stricter regulations.
“Yes, Apple now makes some iPhone in India and [the Taiwanese chipmaker] TSMC has diversified in Arizona, “says Mary Lovel, a senior associate at the Peterson Institute in Washington.
“But China is still a huge part of the supply chain. Relations with new suppliers need time to develop, they are expensive to develop.”
The study suggests that companies transmit a large part of the cost of tariffs by setting prices. Earlier this month, Corie Barry, head of the US Best Buy electronics seller, said that “the vast majority of” new tariffs “are likely to be transferred to a consumer, because suppliers in the industry have such small margins.
In February, the Taiwanese company Acer said that the price of his laptops would probably increase by 10% based on 10% duties at that time, while the US Group HP warned that his profit would be lower due to tariffs.
Mrs. Ghazarian says she may have to increase the prices this year, but worries that he could reciprocate. “There is a price in which the buyer is pleased with the value of the goods provided.
“The moment I switch above I start losing customers. High inflation squeezed Americans.”
During the first term of Mr Trump, companies like Apple successfully ensured the exemption for products, and we can still see the cutout.
The insiders also suggested that Mr. Trump considers Tariff as a negotiating tactic and could make them easier if he won concessions, as he did when China agreed to buy more US goods in the 2020 agreement.
Fears of American economic slowdown He could make him change the course.
For now, however, tensions look likely to escalate. China, Mexico and Canada vowed to take revenge on any American duties that have imposed on them, and this week Mr Trump threatened to double the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum just to return at the last minute.
He plans to impose “reciprocal tariffs” to the rest of the world soon, and threatened a tariff increase of up to 60% on Chinese goods while on the trail of the campaign.
There is a risk that this could increase the price of technological goods around the world if China is forced to move production to countries where work costs are higher. Moreover, countries can reciprocate tariffs to imported US technology.
Mrs. Ghazarian says she’s worried, but at least she was preparing this time. Like many other American business owners, she ordered an additional inventory before Mr Trump took his duty and stored it in his warehouse of the eastern coast.
He hopes to get that company until next year until he can “turn again”.
“This could mean finding a more profitable way to produce products or do something completely different. It’s frustrating that I have to focus on survival, not the growth of my business.”
