Summary
Russia has imposed a 55.65% tariff on Chinese furniture sliding rail parts, previously exempt from duties, angering both Russian manufacturers and Chinese commentators.
Industry leaders warn the tariff could bankrupt importers, raise domestic furniture prices by 15%, and harm Russia’s furniture industry, which relies heavily on Chinese imports.
Critics note similar European imports face lower duties.
The move has sparked feelings of betrayal in China, despite booming bilateral trade reaching $240 billion in 2023.
The tariff comes amid U.S. sanctions and China’s critical role in supporting Russia’s economy during the Ukraine war.
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Wow, Russia pulling out the big guns here, going after Big Slide.
If this escalates to tarrifs on the hinge industry, the political tensions could boil over into open war
The tariff comes amid U.S. sanctions and China’s critical role in supporting Russia’s economy during the Ukraine war.
If Russia loses China over this, who else will they have? North Korea?
India
Oh yeah, true. Have then been delivering weapons to them though?
They’ve been delivering bucket loads of cash for oil and there was a recent deal for $4 billion USD for radar kit.
Would be such a shame if that happened to get bonked right before/after they plug it in. 😏
Not even… N Korea has been a puppet of China for a while. China will cut Russia off from them too.
North Korea uses Russia and China to balance each other out so to prevent becoming entirely the puppet of either.
Lol, k.
I do believe this is true to some degree.
NK may be more fundamentally more aligned with China, but I do think NK at least tries to play them against each.
This is honestly a tiny tariff that has no real impact on trade between russia and China.
I agree with your logic and analysis.
However the non-tangibles here are pretty staggering - Russia is hugely dependent on China and India for exports (basically oil and gas) to raise cash and foreign currency. It also needs high tech goods from China - China provides drones, cars, bikes, clothes and more to support the invasion. And critically a lot of electronics, including those under sanctions being smuggled from the West.
Placing tariffs on China sends a strong negative message to China - it’s a real slap in the face that will invite a pretty nasty punch back again.
What on earth motivated this?
This does seem very strange. I don’t understand why they would even bother with such a specific, minor tariff.
Perhaps some senior goon (i.e. pretty close to putin, not just a regular oligarch or a regional fief) has money in the furniture business? Still I would imagine it would be easier to implement some sort of local subsidy or corruption scheme as opposed to a tariff against China. It just doesn’t seem worth it.
The article notes that Russia has no furniture slide manufacturing. That’s what makes this tariff so baffling. Genuinely not sure why they would do this, there’s no upside.
Russia has imposed a 55.65% tariff on Chinese furniture sliding rail parts, previously exempt from duties, angering both Russian manufacturers and Chinese commentators.
Russia doesn’t know its a vassal state to China yet? Its about to find out.
55.65% tariff on Chinese furniture sliding rail parts
This is oddly specific, both the value and the items…
It almost sounds like a message from one of those cold war counting stations. “…55-65-% sign-tarif increase-chinese furniture-sliding rail…”
Critics note similar European imports face lower duties.
Why the fuck are we still exporting to Russia?
I read it as “European imports from China face lower duties”.
profit?
I don’t think so, it’s just that EU tries to strategically hit Russia where it hurts the most. But IMO that’s not good enough. We need a total trade embargo against Russia.
The more they relly on the UE, the faster their coffers will deplete.
No, if Russia can’t buy what they need, they have to make it themselves, that requires investments, and with steep interest rates, and worker shortage, they are not in a position to increase their productivity.
There is zero doubt IMO that we should boycott Russia completely, anything less is helping Russia fight the war against Ukraine.
I think both strategies may work.
Munny
The existing trade embargo says otherwise.
Oh wow, and so it begins.
Ok, unpopular take here:
Based Russia, we should all be doing this - and extend it to all the junk we import from China that we have to replace every year instead of only buying once, flooding them with money and sending local production out of business.
Just because Russia is a terrorist state that doesn’t deserve their sovereignty and should receive the 1945 axis treatment, it doesn’t mean that they can’t do one right thing once in a blue moon. This is it.
In that sense it’s a good thing, but strategically this seems like a very strange decision for Russia. They don’t have many allies left in the world, what they gain for their local businesses might not be worth angering their most powerful ally.
Just because Russia is a terrorist state that doesn’t deserve their sovereignty and should receive the 1945 axis treatment,
It means exactly that. Russia should be at least disarmed if not partitioned into multiple states it took over time.
Did you misread my sentence?
Actually, I did.
Protectionism only really makes sense if you’re a country without native industrial capacities and trying to industrialise. Even that is debatable.
Russia used to be a major world power with highly developed heavy industry and okay-ish light industry. A lot of that has been poorly maintained since the fall of the USSR but the factories are still there. Protectionism makes little sense here.
A lot of that has been poorly maintained since the fall of the USSR but the factories are still there.
those factories wre almost all in ukraine.
Price of da brick going up
