Russia has imposed a 55.65% tariff on China-made furniture parts, a trade war salvo that has raised hard new questions about Moscow and Beijing’s “no limits” partnership, as per Asia Times, a media outlet owned by Asia Times Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong company holding multimedia and public relations company, which followed a story first reported by U.S. magazines Forbes. The Asia Times sees reason to suspect " the first salvo Russia-China trade war", as the paper writes.

Since autumn 2024, the customs department of Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok has re-categorized furniture sliding rail components as bearing types, resulting in a drastic increase in tariffs from zero to 55.65%. The city now handles 90% of China’s furniture parts imports into Russia, the paper writes.

The Association of Furniture and Woodworking Enterprises of Russia (AMDPR) said the new tariff would bankrupt Russian importers of furniture components and create an additional 15% cost for local furniture makers.

AMDPR president Alexander Shestakov said importing a finished piece of furniture, which is only subject to a 9-12% tariff, is now more profitable than producing it domestically. He said the targeted components are currently not produced in Russia, which imports about US$1.3 billion of these furniture parts annually, mainly from China.

He added that furniture parts importers now must pay up to 2 to 2.5 million rubles ($19,969 to $24,962) worth of tariffs for each container, causing many to send them back to China rather than take delivery.

The move comes amid a troubling Chinese economy and slowing growth of the Asian country’s exports which grew by 6.7% year-on-year in November 2024, missing market forecasts of 8.5% and sharply deteriorating from a more than two-year high of 12.7% surge in the previous month, reflecting ongoing trade tensions with the West.