It has been over a decade since some Hong Kong manufacturers, responding to the mainland’s sweeping industrial upgrade and sensing rising US-China trade tensions, moved to set up factories overseas. Being nimble paid off, until President Donald Trump launched his barrage of tariffs on US trading partners as part of his “America first” economic plan. In the second of a three-part series, the Post focuses on a global headwear manufacturer that moved strategically early, only to navigate new disarray in world trade today. Read part one here.
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Hong Kong businesswoman Pauline Ngan Po-ling was in Beijing for China’s annual parliamentary meeting in early March when mayhem struck the global trading system.
United States President Donald Trump had begun slapping hefty tariffs on US trading partners, hitting China hardest, in a bid to reduce the US trade deficit, assert American interests and correct what he believes are imbalances unfair to the world’s largest economy.
Ngan recalled the chaos on March 5, the day after Trump levied a 25 per cent tariff on imports from neighbouring Mexico, where her company produced caps, hats and other headgear mainly for the American market.
That day, she said, US customs officers did not know how to impose the new tariffs on Mainland Headwear Holdings’ goods moving across the border.
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The very next day, however, Trump suspended the Mexico tariffs, and subsequent negotiations led to zero duties for garment imports from the country.
While that was a relief, Bangladesh, where Ngan’s company had its main production base, was affected by a series of moves by the US leader.