内容摘要：Cheech and Chong pose for a portrait on April 23, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Cheech and Chong pose for a portrait on April 23, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

John Curry, owner and chief executive officer of HAPARI International, an Arizona-based swimwear business, had switched from bulk shipping to de minimis shipping about six months ago to improve cash flow, speed up delivery, and eventually eliminate U.S.-based warehousing. His company makes its products in China and sells them directly to U.S. customers via its own online storefront.Curry said he planned to stay the course and pay the additional 145% duty — one parcel at a time — while waiting for the U.S. and China to work out a more sustainable approach.

“There has to be a solution because both countries cannot survive this way,” Curry said.Izzy Rosenzweig, founder and CEO of the logistic company Portless, helps businesses like HAPARI to ship goods from its China-based warehouse using the de minimis exemption. He says U.S. businesses are likely to stay in China for now given the competitiveness of the manufacturing base and of the supply chain in China but can be expected to raise prices.And while businesses with good profit margins probably will continue to ship from China, those that run on razor-thin profit margins are likely to “go local”, setting up more U.S.-based warehouses to defray tariff costs, he said.

Trade groups representing flag manufacturers and bike dealers said they expect to benefit from the end of the duty exemption.In written comments on the U.S. Trade Representative portal, for instance, the Flag Manufacturers Association of America said its members have been bombarded by an onslaught of American flag imports mostly made in China that are falsely marketed and significantly discounted. The group cited a drop of 25% to 35% in industrywide sales of American-made U.S. flags last year.

Larry Severini, CEO of Embroidery Solutions Manufacturing LLC, which makes the star fields for U.S. flag manufacturers, had to shutter one of his two plants in South Carolina earlier this year because of stiff competition from cheap imports. He noted sales have fallen 20% since 2021 in part because of the de minimis exemption.

“We need duties to level the playing field to make it fair,” Severini said.Koizumi on Thursday announced plans to switch to voluntary government contracts for rice to better control prices and to lift a cap on the next sale.

One problem may be a lack of enough milling capacity to turn the stocks of brown rice kept in reserves into the pure white rice that Japanese prefer. But others have accused some wholesalers of hoarding rice to keep prices higher.So far, the government has done little to investigate and resisted releasing reserves, fearing prices would fall, Kazuhito Yamashita, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies.

Japan could have avoided the problem by allowing more rice to be planted and exporting more if there were surpluses, he said.“Acreage cutbacks are contrary to food security, a ruinous policy,” Yamashita said. He said that the policy benefits JA by keeping small farmers afloat.