Christmas lights, tangled in US-China trade war, show Vietnam’s struggle
- Shipments from Vietnam to US have more than doubled thanks to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, but the data tells a more complicated story
- Hanoi is struggling to deal with Chinese suppliers who transport goods to neighbouring countries, relabel them and ship them to US
In living rooms across the US and the world, Christmas lights this year tell a complicated trade-war tale that stretches all the way to Vietnam.
For many years the holiday lights were produced almost solely in China, but increased US tariffs on Chinese goods pushed many buyers to source the goods elsewhere.
One country that has come out a clear winner is Vietnam: seaborne shipments of Christmas lights from Vietnam to the US more than doubled in the first 10 months of the year from the same period in 2018, according to US customs data. At the same time, American imports of the lights from China fell 49 per cent.
A deeper look at the data and discussions with trade experts and businesses reveal a complex story.
Christmas lights are following a pattern that is becoming familiar up and down the US tariff lists: Chinese suppliers are finding ways to ditch the “Made in China” label to evade penalties, using neighbouring countries like Vietnam to transport goods across borders, relabel them and ship them to the US.
