China was and remains among the largest trade partners with the United States, though that status is in threat thanks to President Trump's "liberation day" economy-tanking ego trip. The back-and-forth volley of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods leading to Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods began during the first Trump term with an unprovoked 30% tariff on solar panels, most of which come from China, in early 2017. On April 2 the U.S. president announced the trade tax baseline for Chinese goods coming into the U.S. would be raised to 34% and a few days later Beijing responded with matching 34% tariffs on all incoming U.S. goods.
On April 7 Trump threatened China with a retaliatory 50% increase to 84% if China didn't remove its matching 34% tariff, which it doesn't seem particularly interested in doing. Trump also cancelled any trade meetings with China. The car you're working on in your spare time, the one you're hoping to have ready for summer, just got a lot more expensive.
The home-built performance car hobby is built on the back of Chinese tools and parts. I have over a decade in parts industry experience under my belt, but it doesn't take an expert to see all of the Made In China labels on parts boxes for everything from air filters to turbochargers and coilover kits, and you know damn well half the tools in your U.S. General toolbox are Pittsburgh branded. If this ever-escalating trade war doesn't end soon, the Harbor Freight tool aisle will be as expensive as the Matco truck, and your Maxpeedingrods might cost as much as Öhlins (which are also going up, thanks to the 20% tariff on European Union goods).
The international supply chain, particularly for low-volume performance products, is heavily weighted toward items constructed in China for American consumption. Your average hop up parts seller in the U.S. is sending CAD files to a factory in China and getting a finished product that is really damn good. China has been the hard goods manufacturing center of the world for at least 35 years, and has gotten really good at delivering exactly the level of quality needed at a ridiculously low price. When those carbon fiber intakes for your Civic Type R or stamped steel skid plates for your overlanding RAV4 hit the port, they'll be marked up almost double, and there isn't a parts supplier in the U.S. with enough margin on their parts to eat that kind of bump in import taxes.
Without any desire to be Chicken Little here, the cost of being a car enthusiast is going up significantly this year, and aftermarket car industry jobs will be lost as a result. Racing programs will be cut, your favorite YouTuber won't get as many cool parts for free, overleveraged car loans with Affirm-financed wheels will be repo'd, and conspicuous spending will be severely curtailed when the Trump tariffs hit all of our pocketbooks. When people can't pay their grocery bills or fill up their gas tanks, big aftermarket parts purchases get axed from the budget real quick. Prepare for a dire 2025 driving season.