US Tariffs Push China’s Largest Wholesale Market to the Brink

China’s Yiwu-based merchants slash staff and warehouse space after the de minimis repeal turns cheap‑parcel trade into a money‑losing grind.
US Tariffs Push China’s Largest Wholesale Market to the Brink
A worker packages Christmas decorations for export at a factory in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China, on April 28, 2025. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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Stacks of unsold socks, gloves, toys, and storage boxes now clog warehouse floors in Yiwu—the Chinese city that once sent cut-price trinkets to every corner of the planet.

Cross‑border e‑commerce orders from the world’s biggest small‑commodity hub have plunged by roughly 70 percent since the U.S.–China tariff standoff escalated, a local freight‑forwarding executive says. The shock has hit Yiwu’s merchants and logistics firms so hard that many are teetering on the brink of collapse.