Letters | Hong Kong SMEs need all the help they can get to survive US tariffs

Readers call on the HKMA to step in with support, question Hong Kong’s decision not to impose tariffs on US imports, and discuss evolving China-Asean relations

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A Hongkong Post employee handles parcels outside the General Post Office in Central. Hong Kong’s postal service said it will stop shipping goods bound for the US in response to “bullying” tariff hikes by US President Donald Trump. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 11:30am, 19 Apr 2025

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I am the director of a long-time small business in Hong Kong. The recent US tariffs and elimination of the de minimis shipping exemption have crippled my business, which relies upon shipping our Hong Kong-produced goods to customers in the US.

Now that Hongkong Post has done its part in further disrupting Hong Kong’s economy by refusing to accept any parcels to the US, I can only hope that things will de-escalate before I am forced to wind down my business and set up operations in another country.

In the interim, I call on the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to require all the city’s banks to do their part in supporting the city’s struggling small and medium-sized enterprises by permanently abolishing the banks’ completely unnecessary minimum balance requirements for business accounts. For example, our bank demands that we maintain a HK$100,000 (US$12,900) minimum balance in our account or be hit with punitive fees if it falls below this level. This is totally without justification as the balance in our account has absolutely no impact on the bank’s operations or administrative costs.

In these very challenging times, it’s often the little things that help.

T. Schmidt, Tai Koo