Exporters have told The Epoch Times that China’s largest trade fair was emptier than in previous years. Pessimism is now pervasive across many industries after the United States imposed a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods due to the Chinese regime’s unfair trade practices.
The Canton Fair, also known as the China Import and Export Fair, is the oldest, largest, and most representative trade fair in China. It has been held in the spring and autumn seasons each year since the spring of 1957 in Guangzhou city in Guangdong Province in southern China.
The Canton Fair’s 137th fair is this spring.
China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said that this season’s Canton Fair had about 31,000 exhibitors, including more than 30,000 exhibitors at the export fair for the first time, and it motivated more than 200,000 foreign buyers to pre-register. However, Chinese exporters attending the fair told The Epoch Times that they have fewer clients or contracts this year and that they are worried about the impact of the tariffs.
The fair runs in three phases from April 15 to May 5.
In the first phase, held until April 19, exhibitors showcased their products in the fields of consumer electronics and information products, household electrical appliances, spare parts, lighting equipment, electronic and electrical products, hardware, and tools.
An exhibitor for a lighting equipment factory in Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province, who didn’t give his name out of safety concerns, said that “there are no clients from Germany, France, and the United States” but “more people from Ukraine and Russia.”
He said that there were few people on the morning of the opening day. He added that although the fair brought them quality buyers in previous years, his company isn’t expecting to sign as many orders this year as before.
While his factory has not been affected by the tariffs yet, the exhibitor anticipates that it will be affected eventually, as “a large part of this market is resold to the United States [through other countries].”
Phase 2 of the Canton Fair will be held from April 23 to April 27, with exhibitors selling general ceramics, household items, furniture, and other products.
A furniture businessman from Fujian Province in southeast China told The Epoch Times that the economy has been bad in recent years and “the furniture fair in Shenzhen last month was already very bleak.” Their furniture business follows a traditional export model, serving the European and U.S. markets, and now, their foreign trade business has been greatly impacted, he said.
A Buyer’s Market
Although the Trump administration’s tariffs on the rest of the world are much lower for now, they are likely to curb global demand in the coming months, as well as demand for Chinese goods in other countries due to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, including those resold to the United States through other countries.U.S.-based China affairs analyst Wang He told The Epoch Times on April 15 that China still has indirect exports through other countries to the United States.
“Now, Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are actually forcing countries to make a stance—are they standing with the United States or with the CCP?” he said.
“If the CCP uses them as a third party to re-sell Chinese goods to the United States, the United States will impose higher tariffs on these countries as well. So the CCP’s indirect export to the United States will also be hit hard.”
A staff member of a crane factory in Liaoning Province in northeast China participating in the fair told The Epoch Times on April 15: “There are not many people now, and I don’t know if there will be more tomorrow. There are not as many clients as last year.”
U.S.-based economist Davy J. Wong said that the Canton Fair has always been a platform for showcasing China’s exports. Now, it’s emptier with the U.S. market frozen, “indicating that China’s voice in export trading has been frozen.”
“In the past, export prices were determined by China, which was the world’s factory,“ he said. ”Now it has become a buyer’s market. Europe and the United States are the largest buyers and have the final say in global export.”
Wong said that the decline of the Canton Fair symbolizes that expectations for the Chinese economy are turning pessimistic and represents the industry’s lack of confidence in the future economy.
Wang noted that China has been dumping goods at low prices in recent years, which has caused resentment from countries around the world.
“After losing the U.S. market, where will China’s huge amount of goods be sold to?“ he said. ”Every country is very nervous and is on high alert, so there is not much room [for exports] at the Canton Fair.”
Investment bank UBS in April lowered its forecast for China’s economic growth this year to 3.4 percent from its previous 4 percent. UBS expects China’s exports to the United States to fall by two-thirds in the coming quarters, and China’s overall exports are expected to fall by 10 percent this year.
