The fireworks industry is warning that a continued trade war with China could make next year’s Fourth of July displays fizzle early. The vast majority of all fireworks are imported from China, and there aren’t feasible options to get them from anywhere else should the White House go ahead with its plans to slap tariffs on Chinese goods.
Fireworks were among the $300 billion in Chinese products that would have been covered by the latest round of 25% tariffs proposed by the White House. President Trump put those tariffs on hold Saturday following an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to restore ongoing trade negotiations, but the tariffs could still be enacted should talks break down again.
Even if the tariffs remain in limbo for the next few months, the uncertainty could be very disruptive for the industry, says Julie Heckman, executive director of trade group American Pyrotechnics Association. Since most fireworks are used on only one day of the year, they have to plan far in advance.
“We’re optimistic that a trade deal between the U.S. and China may be reached soon,” Heckman said. “But from the industry’s perspective, it’s a slight bit of relief and it’s not over until it is definitively over.”
The group has requested that the White House exclude fireworks from tariffs. It will likely be weeks or months before it finds out if the exception was granted.
There was a sizable domestic fireworks industry in the first half of the 20th century, thanks mainly to Italian immigrants who brought their expertise. But it was largely put out of business in the 1960s and ’70s by federal regulators from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Shifting production back to the U.S. would be virtually impossible, Heckman said. Fireworks are still mostly handmade, and it is a highly skilled and labor-intensive job. China so dominates the industry that there aren’t alternatives.
“There are a handful of U.S. manufacturers who remain who make what I would call specialty products for the larger aerial shows which are hard to import, but they could never supply the U.S. demand for fireworks,” she said.
The Trump administration initially resisted putting tariffs on fireworks, which weren’t included among the $250 billion worth of Chinese goods currently under 25 levies, but that changed after the conflict with Beijing heated up. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the House Ways and Means Committee last month that the $300 billion of goods that would be subject to tariffs “includes all of the rest of the trade between the U.S. and China. That was the president’s direction and that is what we are looking at.”
The U.S. imported 277 million pounds of fireworks from China last year, according to Census Department data. Backyard fireworks come almost exclusively, about 99%, from China. Professional displays put on by local governments, theme parks, and others use Chinese fireworks 75% of the time, with the rest coming from Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico, and Japan.
“Without China, in our little industry, I don’t know what we’d do,” Steve Houser, secretary of the National Fireworks Association, an industry group that promotes safe practices, told the Washington Times Monday.
Restricting sales of fireworks likely wouldn’t impact China’s predatory trade policies such as forcing companies to give up technology, which is what the administration’s tariffs are supposedly meant to put a stop to. Fireworks aren’t high-tech items and haven’t changed much since their invention more than 1,000 years ago in China.
A price hike of 25% thanks to tariffs would be a significant burden on local government displays.
“Our concern is the small townships and municipalities, most of which already operate on a small, cash-strapped budgets,” Heckman said.
