Avoid Tariff Trump, some Chinese companies move to a “special economic zone” in Cambodia “

Penh Penh, Cambodia -The conjunction of the semi-Camion went through while our CBS team was driving about two hours south of the capital of Cambodia, PHNO Penh. A moment later, we were greeted with a huge arch with a inscription in two languages ​​- a local Khmer and, under it, Chinese.

There could be no mistake in who is in charge of the “special economic zone” that rises from dirt. We approached the furniture factory, where the Chinese manager invited us to record a video.

The production facility, which makes the Ottomans, moved to Cambodia from China about a month ago.

We asked the manager about his neighbors in the economic zone, and he said that most of the companies who move in to the Chinese. The stimulus for driving behind the relocation of these production operations avoids US tariffs to Chinese goods, and there are many companies that decide to invest.

The scope of an industrial park that grows in southern Cambodia is hard to understand. Construction continues with miles.

The US-Kine trade war is the main reason for the explosion of Chinese investment in a relatively small nation about 600 miles from continental China.

In 2016, before President Trump took the post for his first term, Cambodian exports to the United States were worth approximately three billion dollars a year. Last year, they surpassed $ 13 billion, representing almost 30% of GDP land.

Cambodian government says more than half of the factory in the country is now in Chinese owned-owned investment worth about $ 9 billion.

“It is a means of avoiding US tariffs,” CSEy Casey Barnett, president of the US Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, told CBS News Casey.

While Chinese companies operate in Cambodia are translated by US tariffs, they are technically playing according to the rules. But as Trump’s administration firmly puts China into its economic intersection, there are concerns in Cambodia that the country’s own economy could maintain collateral damage.

“They are completely dependent on exports to the US and they could become a target – a vulnerable target,” Barnett said.

For the owner of the Factory of Mr. Huang’s clothing, it would be devastating. He readily admitted that he was concerned about the possibility of President Trump aiming for goods like his – Chinese, but made in Cambodia – with new tariffs.

None of the newcomers, Huang founded a trade in Cambodia 20 years ago, using tax breaks and lower wages in the country, while still leading factories in China. But when the 2018 trade war began, he moved all the Cambodian operations.

CBS News told 60% of his business in the US market, and his goods are going to famous merchants, including Walmart and Costco.

Huang said the incoming commands multiplied since Mr Trump announced his new tariffs on China, whose last round could take effect on Tuesday.

Escalating the US-Kine trade war

Mr. Trump imposed 10% of blankets Tariff to Chinese imports At the beginning of February, drawing retaliation by the measure by China of 15% on the imported of us Coal and liquidated natural gas, together with 10% tariff on raw oil, agricultural machines and some cars. Last week, Mr. Trump threatened China with another 10% duties on all imports, which would take effect on Tuesday, which resulted in a total of 20% of the blankets of blankets on all goods imported in the United States

Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs on China, he says, because of the failure of Beijing to stop the flow of a deadly fental in the USA

Already Beijing plans more countermeasures.

“China is studying and formulating relevant countermeasures in response to the threat of the US for imposing an additional 10% of tariffs to Chinese products under the spoke of Fentanil,” Global Times newspaper considers a large -scale lip for a ruling communist party, reported on Monday, citing an anonymous source.

“The countermeasures are likely to include tariffs and a series of non-Tariff measures, and US agricultural and food products are most likely to be listed,” the newspaper said.

CBS News addressed the White House for comment and will update with any answer.

Unless and while escalating trade war does not see that Mr. Trump is turning his favorite Economic weapon of tariff at Cambodia, Huang told CBS News more Chinese companies will probably become his neighbors in the country.

“Of course,” the businessman said. “Many tell me they need a factory building, they need to move immediately, because they think taxes grow.”

He believes that the trade war will be obliged to escalate and is convinced that Cambodia and other countries of Southeast Asia are the future for Chinese manufacturers.