Great! Now I’ll have to buy the same products from Walmart for ten times the cost. At least the Waltons can wet their beaks on it now.
Why underpay and exploit labor in China when you can also underpay and exploit labor here, too, and pay more for the privilege?
I mostly use Ali Express (admittedly, not mentioned in any of the articles about this change in tariff applications) for fishing gear. Many of the big names in fishing lures, Blue Fox, Panther Marten, Kastmaster, etc. have all moved their production overseas. When I buy the “knock offs”, it shows up in the same packaging I see in Dick’s or Walmart with the same product inside. But I can choose to pay $7.99 for one lure or $2.16 for 3. It’s coming from the same factory, made by the same people, the only difference is how much it costs and whose pockets get filled from paying that price.
Oh, also, the cheapo Chinese braid line (its being manufactured to be sold in Japan under their brands) is way superior to what we get in the USA, way stronger and thinner. And I get 500m of it for $17.
From what I remember, the difference is quality control. Western companies are usually much more restrictive, accepting only every 10th or 100th item from the producer. The subpar items are then sold by the producer somewhere else such as Temu or AliExpress. I also know this to be true for microscopes. Motic produces in China for Zeiss, but Zeiss refuses most of their units due to QC issues, which are then sold by Motic under their own name for a fraction of the Zeiss price.
Protectionism in the “land of free market” (irony)
There’s probably a degree of protectionism going on but these platforms sell unsafe products
Which is something that can, and often does happen in unregulated free markets. The invisible hand is not necessarily very good at things like consumer protection, among other things.
Although chinese goods are famous for crappy short lifespan products but in the end we loved it because no one in this god green earth (except china) can make something cheaper & sell it at ridiculously cheaper…only china can do that thing.
I say this not to mean I am defending them, I hate that many products on the market today seem cheap because they flood the market with very cheap stuff. Yes… even though in the end we as consumers find it difficult to distinguish which goods are premium and which are crap.
We should learn from them, if they can do it, why can’t we?
“Cracking down” is among the worst newpaper propaganda phrases.
It’s meaningless and it implicitly justifies the “cracker”.
I’m pretty sure nobody loves cheap Chinese goods. It’s more people love to be able to afford eating, having a roof over their head, and maybe some shitty, but cheap, headphones.
