00:00In China's fireworks heartland, workers carefully pack gunpowder by hand,
00:06under strict safety rules in a region that has produced fireworks for centuries.
00:11The industry has been feeling the impact of trade tensions with its biggest export market, the United States.
00:17At Chile Fireworks in Hunan Province, production supervisor He Shui-shan says U.S. orders had taken a hit.
00:26In the past year or so, the orders I've dealt with the most come from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany,
00:34and the U.K.
00:38As for the U.S., orders had dropped a lot due to tariffs.
00:43Tariffs that once surged as high as 145 percent left shipments stranded and forced factories to shift towards other markets.
00:52Wilson Lam, U.S. business manager for the Black Scorpion brand, says the impact in April last year was significant.
00:59We also got lots of containers held back in the port, in the warehouse also.
01:06And we were thinking about all the ways to get it through.
01:09But, you know, with that high tariffs, eventually the consumers are going to pay for that.
01:17Even so, American demand hasn't disappeared.
01:20Shelves are lined with fireworks tailored for U.S. buyers, including boxes featuring Donald Trump and Make America Great Again
01:27slogans.
01:28With the U.S. marking its 250 years of independence this year, Lam says sales are rebounding.
01:36It's the 250th anniversary for the U.S. this year, which is a big day.
01:41As we expected, the sales amount is going to go up for like 20 or 30 percent.
01:48That's what we thought about there.
01:50And as a matter of fact, it was a lot better than what we had last year.
01:55Because, you know, plus the tariff thing in April and the products start to come in into the United States.
02:03So we are looking for a better sales this year.
02:07I think it could be at least 15 percent more the last year.
02:12Still, many exporters are hedging their bets, looking beyond the U.S. to reduce risk.
02:19Shandong Fireworks Factory founder Liu Fangguo says the shift has been underway for years.
02:27In fact, over all these years, on the export side, we never had any issues before 2016.
02:32The Americans had a very strong sense of contractual commitment.
02:40But ever since Trump came to power in 2016 and tariffs went up,
02:44he made our domestic exporters, both businesses and local governments,
02:48do everything they can to shift from exports to the domestic market
02:52and to expand into other countries and regions.
02:58Despite tensions, Lam says the world's two largest economies remain deeply connected.
03:04We can't live without each other because we are the most major,
03:08the biggest major trading party in this world.
03:11So we can't live without each other.
03:13And I am optimistic about all of this.
03:18And when the fireworks finally reached their destination,
03:21the politics behind them fade, replaced by spectacle.
03:25A reminder that even amid trade disputes, demand for celebration still burns bright.
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