More than 90 per cent of Chinese apparel imports into the US will be hit with 15 per cent tariffs beginning September. This is also true of 68.4 per cent of Chinese home textile imports into the US and 52.5 per cent of footwear imports.

A sudden 15 per cent tariff on apparel from China will also trigger cost increases from other major suppliers, either by forcing costs up as companies shift to other countries and run into capacity constraints or by giving suppliers in those other countries a pricing advantage.

Companies are trying to lessen the number of products that will be affected by the September tariffs. For example, T-shirts that are less than 70 per cent silk will be hit with tariffs. Knowing this, companies can ask factories to start making their T-shirts completely out of silk. Companies also timed shipments to arrive earlier to evade the deadline. People ordered early and some products landed in August. Another strategy is for retailers to move factories, suppliers or vendors out of China. But even this will be difficult due to capacity limitations in other countries and the need to build new relationships to ensure compliance with various product safety and labor regulations.