Hawaii businesses hope for tariff relief as U.S., China say they’ll resume trade talks

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday said the U.S. trade deficit was cut in half in April, with new tariffs fueling a steep drop in imports.

Meantime, President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping today discussed trade on a 90-minute phone call and agreed to resume negotiations.

It’s good news for Hawaii business owners who’re struggling to make sense of confusing tariff rhetoric and the rising costs of Chinese goods.

The U.S. and China are in the middle of a 90-day tariff truce that’s set to expire in August. Under it, the U.S. dropped the tax on Chinese imports from 145% to 30%.

Now with trade talks set to resume, more change could be coming.

“This hurts, but we’re still okay,” said Richard Chan, farm coordinator of Adela’s Country Eatery in Kaneohe, which is part takeout spot, part food lab.

For 6 years, the family-run business has won over foodies with its innovative noodles made with local produce — like ulu, ube, malunggay, taro, avocado and watercress — served in dishes you can’t find anywhere else.

For the past year, Adela’s has been experimenting with spirulina algae, ogo seaweed and sea asparagus from the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Tropical Agriculture and local farms like Olokai.

“What we found out is that everything from the ocean, after you dry them, after a little while, the smell really comes out, you can really smell the ocean, so it’s really good stuff and they’re very nutritious,” Chan said.

Chan says they can substitute about half of the imported ingredients in noodles with local plants.

The result? Hapa varieties.

“That’s why this lab is called Aunty’s Hapa Hawaiian Food Lab because most likely we cannot replace everything,” Chan said.

It’s all part of its mission of promoting food sustainability and reducing Hawaii’s dependence on imports, even more important now with rising shipping costs and tariffs.

Like many small business owners, Chan is stocking up on critical supplies, in case tariffs push prices even higher.

“The basic stuff, you know, your forks and knives and foil containers, food containers, those things, if I run out of that, I don’t care, 100% if I run out of that, everything stops. So that’s what we’re trying to prevent,” he said.

Though trade deals are still in the works, economists expect costs to remain high.

“We think tariffs are gonna come down but by now nowhere near all the way back down to where they were before,” said Carl Bonham, economist with University of Hawaii’s Economic Research Organization.

“Something on the order of 10% tariffs, which is almost four times higher than they were before January 2025, so that’s a permanent shock to the economy.”

A shock that businesses like Adela’s are absorbing.

“I don’t even bother to raise the price because I don’t know what to raise,” Chan said. “I have to wait till my supplier tell me, hey, this go up 50%, then we will deal with it.”

With all the uncertainty, Chan says they’re focusing on what they can control, like expanding their dried, packaged noodle business.

“Let’s go back to our aina, work on our aina, work on our products, and improve that and then reach out to different markets. So hopefully we can start to do e-commerce, shift it to mainland,” Chan said.

Business owners say they are more resilient after the pandemic, having dealt with supply disruptions.

The hope now is for a U.S.-China trade deal to happen sooner than later.

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