While many Chinese businesses are reeling from the trade war, Qi, the Maga merchandise maker, brushed off any suggestion his might suffer. Trump supporters, he said, were willing to pay any price for items bearing the image of their beloved president - and US suppliers were making such a huge profit on them that they could afford to partially absorb the tariff impact. A Trump baseball cap, for instance, cost only Rmb7.50 ($1) to produce. Tariffs might raise that cost to Rmbo, but the caps were being sold for $50 in the US. "American sellers could even use the tariffs as an excuse to raise the price to $60 - yet the extra cost will still be borne by the US consumers, " said Qi.
Quite wonderful find by this FT team. A Chinese small business that makes MAGA merch on.ft.com/4cAH6tE