What is the latest on these trade negotiations? Right. As we heard over the weekend, there are negotiations with 17 plus one countries, the plus one being China.
And it seems like some of them are going faster than others. South Korea, Japan, India are seem to be progressing much faster. We heard that there may be some sort of an announcement on South Korea as early as this week.
But typically, trade negotiations don't take weeks. They take months, sometimes years. And when it comes to China, we haven't heard a lot, to be honest.
And we don't even really know what it is that Trump might be looking for in terms of a concession from China. And when we look at the other side of the ledger, when we look at the communications from Beijing, we heard over the weekend on Friday and today as well, that they're planning for contingencies, they're planning for strengthening their economy for the event of a more protracted trade war. So it doesn't look like there's a lot of progress being made on that front.
Okay. Meanwhile, on the corporate level, in terms of adjusting to these tariffs, fast fashion chain Shein previously a Chinese company now based and headquartered in Singapore with that global footprint, hiking U. S.
prices ahead of the tariffs. What do we know and to what extent is this potentially a canary in the coal mine in terms of higher prices for the U. S.
? It certainly does look like the first of many such steps yet to come. We heard from Shein that they raised prices on a range of products from kitchenware to beauty products, kitchen towels being some of the most affected products.
But what it really tells us is that the changes in U. S. trade policy are really affecting prices.
Now, when it comes to share, it's not just the tariffs, it's also the elimination of an exemption for small value products that's gone into place. But what we can expect is more of this to come and Main Street will be affected. And the effects are just now starting to trickle through.
Some economists are already warning of a potential supply shock coming to the U. S. as soon as next month, and that may put more pressure on the US administration to progress more quickly on those talks.
