happy fourth of july
How fireworks managed to survive Trump's tariffs on China
President Trump has approved some $50 billion worth of tariffs on imported Chinese goods, but at least one summer staple is safe: fireworks. About 99 percent of backyard fireworks "come directly from China," Julie Heckman, the executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, told NPR. "And about 70 percent of the professional display fireworks are manufactured in China."
The firework business is doing well in the U.S., too, with Americans expected to spend more than $900 million on sparkly things that go boom this year. "Thankfully, the fireworks industry has not been impacted by the tariffs," added Heckman. "We are watching it very, very closely."
As Quartz noted last year, America has a high dependence on China for fireworks with few homegrown alternatives. China has "a near-monopoly on a global scale," Quartz writes, with NPR observing that "last year imports of fireworks [in the U.S.] dwarfed exports by a ratio of more than 40 to 1."