SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO)– As fireworks vendors prepare for the Fourth of July, President Donald Trump’s latest tariff on Chinese products may impact the sale of fireworks over the country.
Jennifer Starr owner of All Star Fireworks in Harrisburg, said it typically has to order its products as early as August.
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“When you are talking a 104% increase over the price of your product and that’s pretty daunting,” Starr said. “We have two more containers on the way, one we don’t know how tariffs will impact it, because we don’t know when it was put on the vessel, so it depends when it was loaded on the vessel and what tariffs will be at that time, we are hoping it’s the 34%, but it could be the full 104%.”
According to the American Pyrotechnics Association (APA), Over 99% of global fireworks production takes place in China, with fireworks sales contributing over $2 billion annually to the U.S. economy.
Starr said as of now the company is waiting to see how things play out before it finalizes the order for additional fireworks.
“The other shipment was waiting for production to finish of what we ordered. Today i emailed them and said don’t even secure shipping space because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Starr said.
Starr said she is going to keep prices as close to last year’s as she can.
“It’s definitely made a huge impact, there are so many importers around the United States that are canceling their product,” Starr said.
Starr said while she sells consumer fireworks, display fireworks companies could also see a big impact.
“I’m not sure what the display firework companies are doing now, I’m sure some will be increasing what they charge for a show,” Starr said. ” It will probably be quite expensive for a display fireworks show.”
Starr said her company is treating this like previous years when there was some difficulty with shipping prices.
“Two years ago we advertised ours as inflation free fireworks as well as during COVID when they tripled our ocean fare to get it from China to here, it was like $11,000 and during COVID year in 2022 it was $40,000 a container,” she said.
Consumer fireworks are small, sold for personal use (like sparklers and firecrackers), while display fireworks are larger, professional-grade pyrotechnics used in organized displays, requiring trained professionals for setup and execution.
The American Pyrotechnics Association and the National Fireworks Association (NFA) wrote a letter to President Trump asking him to exempt the fireworks industry from the tariffs.
Part of the letter said, “The American Pyrotechnics Association and the National Fireworks Association, representing thousands of small family-owned businesses and nonprofits dependent on fireworks sales and displays, respectfully urge you to lift these tariffs immediately. The fireworks industry is unique, and our request aligns with your commitment to strengthening American businesses while protecting America’s patriotic traditions.”
You can find the full letter on their website here.
