China has a major problem when it comes to Contractual Spirit. While this is not true across the general public, the governmental policies makers has a long historic track of not keeping up on what they promised. In fact, since the entry of World Trade Organization back in 2000, China has been rebuking its WTO obligations and while other members of WTO follow their fundamental commitments, China has continuously to self-benefit by violating on its commitments. The CPTPP which came in effect on 2018 has rejected China’s entrance as it noted that China has not been fulfilling its WTO commitments. With recent comment by Trump on China’s continuous violation on its agreement, US China Trade War expect to continue impact flooring industry.
Recent Comment by Trump and Implications for China exports
“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. “Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.”
Donald Trump post on retruths on May,25th, 2025
Trump has made a comment which explicitly state that China has failed to comply with its recent agreement with United States. It is an indication that China would have very limited time before Trump administration starts to impose stronger reciprocal tariffs against China.
Note that while the Court of International Trade on May 28th, 2025, has currently ruled that Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs on every country, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro also told reporters on Thursday: “You can assume that even if we lose [in court], we will do it [tariffs] another way.” Indicating that US China Trade War will continue impact the flooring industry.
Implications on Flooring Industry and Flooring Importers
The implication for US and China’s increasing trade war tension has already led both flooring brands and manufacturers to seek and diversify their productions in other geographical regions. With significant flooring sourcing demands being fulfilled by countries such as Viet Nam and Thailand, these production shift and economic damage (for China) will not been returning even if Trade war De-Escalated. The reason is very simply, because the political risks and investment risks are becoming overwhelmingly high it is simply not worth the risks even with slight increase in price.
Flooring importers, especially coming from United States market, will gradually decrease its purchase from Chinese manufacturers. There is already strong observation that flooring demands has already shifted to Southeast Asia.