Trump tariffs dent profits: Temu reports significant decline
The owner of the Chinese online store Temu, PDD Holdings, reported a 47 percent drop in profits in the first quarter of 2025, according to the BBC. The company's CEO, Chen Lei, assessed that this is a result of the trade policy conducted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Shares of Temu, one of the leading e-commerce companies listed on the American stock exchange, dropped by over 13 percent this week after the company announced that its profits in the first three months of the year fell to 14.74 billion yuan (approximately $2.73 billion CAD).
The CEO of PDD Holdings stated that the trade war between the U.S. and China "exerted significant pressure on buyers." In his opinion, the decline in profit was caused, among other things, by changes in tariffs.
End of the tariff exemptions
Before the announcement of the new tariff policy by the Trump administration, Temu and other Chinese sales platforms, such as Shein, benefited from tariff exemptions.
This allowed for the sale and shipment of low-value goods to the U.S. without having to pay import taxes.
