After the US tariff stick was implemented, a joint force that supported my country's foreign trade enterprises was quickly formed. In contrast to the scene where some people expect that the company will be at a loss, the two completely different pictures of "one movement and one stillness" are impressive.
On the one hand, many American consumers can't sit still, and the download volume of many Chinese e-commerce platform APPs in the United States has been rising steadily, and consumers who respond faster have even set off a "reverse purchasing agent" craze for shopping in China; on the other hand, many foreign trade business owners in my country are as calm and busy as ever. "We rely on our capabilities, and customers cannot do without it." "We do business with the whole world." Behind the calm attitude of dealing with changes is the embodiment of these companies' ability and resilience in response to rapid response. Between "movement" and "quietness", the international competitiveness of "Made in China" is fully demonstrated.
From a fact, my country's foreign trade enterprises are not unaffected. Although my country's dependence on the US market has decreased significantly in recent years, high tariffs are still under real pressure. Among the 524.6 billion US dollars of goods exported to the United States by my country in 2024, various mechanical and electrical products such as mobile phones and computers are important categories, and labor-intensive products such as textiles, toys, and furniture also account for a large proportion. These industries involve a large number of employed people and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. The importance of stabilizing foreign trade enterprises is self-evident.
How should foreign trade companies break through? These days, there are many related discussions, such as negotiating with customers to share costs, expanding new markets, "export to domestic sales", and re-laying the supply chain, etc. There are many ways, some aim at the present moment, and some look at the long-term. Different companies are affected differently and take different measures, but there are two common points: attach importance to the diversified layout of foreign trade and attach importance to the real skill of not being replaced by enterprises.
"Don't put eggs in one basket" - let the global market change, foreign trade companies remain calm and break the deadlock, which is inseparable from this important strategy. Only by not relying too much on a single source of customers, widely deploying the domestic and international markets, and being good at using product exports and supply chains to go overseas can enterprises better resist risks and develop more stably.
Exploring a broader overseas market is an important way out. Looking around the world, different markets have their own characteristics, and scattered layout is the optimal solution. In comparison, although emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and Africa are growing rapidly, their scale is limited; North America is still the largest overseas market, and new changes raise new challenges; markets such as the EU, Japan and South Korea are relatively mature and still have potential to tap; regional policy dividends such as RCEP are more sufficient. More cooperation will bring more protection, and it will also be more conducive to enterprises to improve their business flexibility and forge risk buffer zones.
Compared with changes in the international market, the stability of the domestic market. The domestic market, backed by more than 1.4 billion people, has always been the "big rear" of foreign trade companies. If some companies previously transferred goods to the domestic market in order to temporarily solve the inventory backlog, the necessity of upgrading "export to domestic sales" to a long-term strategy in the future is further enhanced. At present, for enterprises with severe export hinderment, the most urgent task is to make good use of various channels provided by relevant departments, e-commerce platforms, large supermarkets, etc., to remove inventory as much as possible, stabilize cash flow, and maintain the basic market. A longer-term plan should be based on product localization, solve various "non-comfortable" problems, re-insight and capture the needs of domestic consumers, deepen the independent brand, and complete a transformation from production to marketing logic.
"Tariffs are short-term tolls, and products are long-term passes" - a response from a foreign trade company head, revealing the way to respond under the tariff game: the greatest confidence often comes from one's own strength. When American buyers find that they can copy Chinese quality across multiple countries and piece together seven or eight suppliers, when only Chinese merchants support small batch customization production, when an American store wants to purchase all the supplies in one-stop and only needs to find Chinese suppliers, the difficult-to-replicate supply chain advantages and industrial cluster effects have become important bargaining chips for my country's foreign trade companies to "respond to changes in the same way" for them.
To build a stronger "moat", the cost advantage is the entry ticket, and excellent quality and technological innovation are the fundamentals. To further enhance the irreplaceability of foreign trade enterprises, we must continue to increase R&D investment, strengthen product innovation, and increase brand bargaining power; continue to work hard to improve the response speed of supply chain and reduce costs and increase efficiency in the entire chain, and promote "Made in China" to achieve a new leap in the global industrial chain and value chain.
my country's foreign trade enterprises always grow up in the baptism of wind and rain. Faced with the unscrupulous U.S. tariffs in recent years, many companies have accumulated rich experience in dealing with it. New opportunities are born in the crisis. For Chinese companies targeting the world, the real test lies in whether they can take this opportunity to force companies to transform and upgrade, build a solid risk defense line, and turn passive into initiative. After all, in a world economy full of uncertainty, doing your own thing is the only and greatest certainty. (Author: Yuan Yang)
