Hannah Miao of The Wall Street Journal reports that Agilian Technology is shifting production to Malaysia to avoid U.S. tariffs. Agilian’s executive stresses the need to adapt to these changes. Miao writes:
After the Trump administration put a new 10% tariff on Chinese products earlier this month, Agilian Technology, an electronics manufacturer in China, pressed forward with its plan to avoid additional levies.
In the run-up to last year’s election, Agilian grew worried that the U.S. would introduce new tariffs if Donald Trump returned to the White House, and one of its key customers asked it to devise a contingency plan for such a scenario. Soon after, an executive from the company visited a factory in Malaysia to explore moving some production there.
Now the 10% levy—along with the threat of more to come—is forcing Agilian to quickly set up production in the country, with the goal of sending its first goods to the U.S. in the spring. […]
Chinese companies looking for ways to dodge tariffs have expanded production to places such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Outward direct investment from China into the manufacturing industry in Asean, a bloc of Southeast Asian countries, was about $9.1 billion in 2023, up from around $4.5 billion in 2018, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. […]
Despite the whiplash nature of Trump’s tariffs policy, Anjoran said his company can’t afford to just do nothing and wait for the dust to settle. He believes it will continue to get harder for Chinese manufacturers to sell their goods to Americans.
“It’s a megatrend that we cannot just dodge,” he said.
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