At Chinese grocery stores, your favorite Asian snacks are part of the trade war

In Flushing, Queens, fresh produce, soy sauces and seaweed-flavored snacks line the aisles at Chang Jiang Supermarket. Chang Jiang sits amid a row of stores in this majority-Asian community, where colorful storefronts feature signs in Chinese and fresh fruit is sold in boxes on the sidewalk.

In Flushing, Queens, fresh produce, soy sauces and seaweed-flavored snacks line the aisles at Chang Jiang Supermarket. Chang Jiang sits amid a row of stores in this majority-Asian community, where colorful storefronts feature signs in Chinese and fresh fruit is sold in boxes on the sidewalk. Local grocers are often the lifelines of the communities they serve. Indian grocers offer cake rusk biscuits to accompany chai tea, and Chinese grocers reliably keep red jars of Lao Gan Ma chili oil and dried plums in stock. But Chang Jiang Supermarket — like other Asian American grocery stores — is caught in President Donald Trump’s trade war. Most imported goods face a 10% tariff even after the Trump administration suspended reciprocal tariffs against a laundry list of countries. But his biggest target, by far, is China. Last month, it began with Trump raising US tariffs on Chinese goods by 20% before tit-for-tat escalation rose levies to a whopping 145%. With no negotiations in sight for the two nations, that’s putting community ties under growing strain — especially for Chinese grocers like Chang Jiang. “With the way things are now, if the tariff doesn’t come down, after two months, there won’t be any more inventory (from China) in the market,” said Wu, the Queens supermarket’s manager, who spoke to CNN on the condition that only his last name is used. Across the US, shoppers can expect to see prices rise on seafood, coffee, fruit, cheese, nuts, candy bars and other imported foods due to Trump’s across-the-board 10% tariffs. The anticipated price hikes will hit low-income shoppers the hardest, because they spend a greater share of their incomes on essentials like groceries. And for those who depend on produce and other items from China, the astronomical tariffs on Chinese goods will have an even greater impact. “Companies in China still depend on us consumers. However much they increase, it all impacts us consumers,” he said.