The Blubber

Chinese businesses selling on Amazon are weighing steep price increases or exiting the U.S. market altogether in response to President Donald Trump’s dramatic tariff hikes, according to sellers and the head of China’s largest e-commerce association.

Trump announced Wednesday that tariffs on Chinese imports would rise to 125%, up from the already imposed 104%, intensifying the economic standoff between the world’s two largest economies.

“This isn’t just a tax issue—it completely overwhelms the entire cost structure,” said Wang Xin, head of the Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, which represents more than 3,000 Chinese Amazon sellers.

“It’ll be very hard for anyone to survive in the U.S. market,” she told Reuters, noting that the tariffs could also trigger customs delays and increased logistics costs. “So for all of us in the cross-border e-commerce business today, this is truly an unprecedented blow.”

Some sellers are preparing to raise U.S. prices, while others are shifting focus to new markets, Wang said. Her comments were echoed by five Shenzhen-based Amazon sellers interviewed by Reuters on Thursday.

China is home to roughly half of Amazon’s third-party sellers, with over 100,000 Amazon storefronts registered in Shenzhen alone—generating an estimated $35.3 billion in annual revenue, according to e-commerce services firm SmartScout.

China also serves as a key manufacturing hub for major e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu. The country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.63 trillion yuan ($358 billion) last year, according to China’s State Council.

Despite China’s e-commerce scale, no market rivals the U.S. in consumer spending power. This limits global absorption capacity and increases the likelihood of price wars among Chinese exporters, potentially squeezing margins further.

Of the five sellers Reuters spoke with, three said they planned to raise U.S. prices, while two intended to exit the market entirely.

Dave Fong, who sells products ranging from schoolbags to Bluetooth speakers, said he had already increased U.S. prices by up to 30%. He also plans to let inventory dwindle and cut spending on Amazon ads, which previously accounted for 40% of his U.S. revenue.

“For us and anyone else, you can’t rely on the U.S. market—that’s quite clear,” Fong said. “We have to reduce investment and put more resources into regions like Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the rest of the world.”

Brian Miller, an Amazon seller based in Shenzhen for the past seven years, said he no longer saw a reason to develop new products under current conditions. He expects to raise prices sharply once existing inventories run out in the next month or two.

For example, his children’s building blocks currently retail for $20 on Amazon and cost $3 to manufacture. With the new tariffs, that cost jumps to $7. To maintain margins, he would need to raise the retail price by at least 20%, and prices for higher-cost toys could rise by as much as 50%, he said.