Recently, foreign media have reported that the US government is considering imposing an additional 7.5% tariff on Chinese goods, citing "excess manufacturing capacity" as the reason. Categories such as textiles and home furnishing fabrics are also under the shadow of policy rumors. Currently, this plan is still in the discussion stage, and the tax rate and product list have not been officially implemented. For textile export enterprises with low profits, rather than the 7.5% figure, what they need to be more vigilant about is the long-term uncertainty brought about by trade policies.

Tariff concerns are upon us: Textile enterprises are under pressure not just from tax rates

The textile industry itself has limited profit margins. Many fabric and garment processing enterprises have a net profit margin of only 3-5 percentage points. Even before the tariffs were implemented, the policy winds had already begun to disrupt the foreign trade frontlines. Overseas buyers were re-evaluating quotations, and some orders were postponed for signing. The original quotation system and order scheduling rhythm of enterprises were forced to be recalculated. The real pressure does not necessarily come from the tariffs themselves, but rather the chain impact brought about by customer bargaining and order fluctuations.

This tariff discussion is not an isolated event. In March this year, the US Trade Representative Office had already initiated a 301 investigation targeting overcapacity, and the policy framework had been laid out. Coupled with the backdrop of a slowdown in global trade growth, the business logic of textile exports has changed. When enterprises do exports, they not only need to consider overseas market demand, but also need to predict changes in future rules and costs. It is difficult to use the stable trade environment thinking of the past to judge the next overseas business.

In the face of this change, textile and foreign trade enterprises do not need to directly abandon the US market. The United States still has a huge consumer market and remains an important source of orders for many home textile and clothing export enterprises. However, the model that is highly dependent on a single market is facing continuous risk amplification.

The consensus in the industry is that the US market should continue to be deeply cultivated, retaining core old customers and mature sales channels; at the same time, actively diversify the customer pool and shift the development focus to regions such as Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Many textile cluster enterprises have already tasted the benefits of diversification, relying on the RCEP benefits to expand the market in ASEAN, exploring incremental orders from countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative", and hedging against the risks brought by fluctuations in trade with the US. 

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