There are no clients from Germany, France, or the United States, a Chinese exporter at the China Import and Export Fair told The Epoch Times.
Exporters have told The Epoch Times that China’s largest trade fair was emptier than in previous years. Pessimism is now pervasive across many industries after the United States imposed a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods due to the Chinese regime’s unfair trade practices.
The Canton Fair, also known as the China Import and Export Fair, is the oldest, largest, and most representative trade fair in China. It has been held in the spring and autumn seasons each year since the spring of 1957 in Guangzhou city in Guangdong Province in southern China.
The Canton Fair’s 137th fair is this spring.
China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said that this season’s Canton Fair had about 31,000 exhibitors, including more than 30,000 exhibitors at the export fair for the first time, and it motivated more than 200,000 foreign buyers to pre-register. However, Chinese exporters attending the fair told The Epoch Times that they have fewer clients or contracts this year and that they are worried about the impact of the tariffs.
The fair runs in three phases from April 15 to May 5.
In the first phase, held until April 19, exhibitors showcased their products in the fields of consumer electronics and information products, household electrical appliances, spare parts, lighting equipment, electronic and electrical products, hardware, and tools.
An exhibitor for a lighting equipment factory in Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province, who didn’t give his name out of safety concerns, said that “there are no clients from Germany, France, and the United States” but “more people from Ukraine and Russia.”
He said that there were few people on the morning of the opening day. He added that although the fair brought them quality buyers in previous years, his company isn’t expecting to sign as many orders this year as before.
While his factory has not been affected by the tariffs yet, the exhibitor anticipates that it will be affected eventually, as “a large part of this market is resold to the United States [through other countries].”
Phase 2 of the Canton Fair will be held from April 23 to April 27, with exhibitors selling general ceramics, household items, furniture, and other products.
A furniture businessman from Fujian Province in southeast China told The Epoch Times that the economy has been bad in recent years and “the furniture fair in Shenzhen last month was already very bleak.” Their furniture business follows a traditional export model, serving the European and U.S. markets, and now, their foreign trade business has been greatly impacted, he said.
He said he was preparing to “sit [idle] on the bench for five days” in the next phase of the Canton fair.
By Alex Wu
