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WIRED spoke to over a dozen US business owners, including mom-and-pop shops, who all said the same thing: Chinese manufacturing is still the gold standard of the world and moving production to a new region would be extremely difficult, regardless of how high tariffs are.

Why is that? Products are sometimes simply unavailable anywhere else but China. There are entire towns, or even clusters of towns, that specialize in producing specific products or items for specific industries, experts say. wired.com/story/tariffs-small-businesses-why-make-things-in-china/

Also, with Trump’s tariff policies seemingly changing almost every week, business owners are confused. Some stopped placing orders for products and supplies for the time being, while others are closing down, at least temporarily. wired.com/story/tariffs-small-businesses-why-make-things-in-china/

Experts say it’s incorrect to assume that lower prices mean lower quality, and the reason manufacturing in China is cheaper than other regions doesn’t always have to do with how much workers are paid. In fact, lower wages have become a less important aspect of their manufacturing strength, they add.