Beijing races with goods to US before Donald Trump's tariffs hit

The race is on to get Chinese goods into the US before President Donald Trump’s tariffs bite.

At sea and in the sky, the US president’s trade war with China has ignited a freight frenzy. Hyundai Merchant Marine’s vessels leaving China for the US are full, deliveries to California ports are surging, and cargo rates for journeys across the Pacific are at a four-year high.

The levies that kick in Monday have amplified the busy pre-holiday season as Chinese manufacturers rush everything from toys to bikes to car parts into American stores before tariffs hit. At Air China, freight to the US is booming.

In Jiangsu province on China’s east coast, E.D. Opto Electrical Lighting dispatched a batch of car lights by sea to Los Angeles in late August, earlier than planned.

“It takes about 25 days, so I hope we can make it,” said export manager Melissa Shu. The company is racing to complete an order for another US customer who’s prepared to pay extra for air freight if it means dodging the new tariffs, she said.

Starting Monday, a 10 percent duty applies to $200 billion of Chinese imports — Trump’s biggest salvo yet in a trade war between the world’s largest economies that now directly hits US consumers. After that, American importers have until the end of the year to stockpile Chinese products before the tariff leaps to 25 per cent.

Jack Ma says he cannot create 1 mn jobs in US 

Alibaba Group Holding co-founder Jack Ma said his promise to create 1 million jobs in the US is impossible to fulfill because of the US-China trade war, a setback in one high-profile effort for deeper cooperation between the world’s two largest economies.

Ma, China’s richest man, made the remarks in an interview in the state-owned Xinhua news service, saying the pledge made to President Donald Trump is no longer feasible because of the unstable trade situation. Ma and Trump met in January 2017 to discuss how adding small and medium-sized US businesses to Alibaba’s platform would boost employment.