In the world's largest wholesale market, American customers have dried up as tariffs hit

At the world’s largest wholesale market in the Chinese city of Yiwu, U.S. customers have dired President Donald's trumps tariffs takes effect.

YIWU, China — Hammers, hats and hair clips. Toys, tech, socks, baseball caps and Christmas decorations. If it’s a cheap manufactured product, it may well have come from the world’s largest wholesale market in the Chinese city of Yiwu. 

With 75,000 suppliers spread across six buildings, it was once a one-stop shop for American companies, big and small, looking to buy cheap goods and export them back to the U.S.  

Today it is on the front line of President Donald Trump’s trade war, and after he upped U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made goods from 10% to 145%, vendors told NBC News on Wednesday, their once reliable American clients have started to put orders on hold or cancel them altogether.  

Nicole Zhang and her husband, Huang Fangchao, whose Yiwu Dowell Accessories Co. makes hair accessories for major brands using machine-cut and hand-finished materials, said around 60 or 70% of her 6 million pieces were destined for the U.S. 

A stall at the wholesale market in Yiwu, China.Janis Mackey Frayer / NBC NewsBut as tariffs have soared, she said American clients like Target have halted orders and put two shipping containers full of her products on hold. “They want to see what is happening in the future,” she said.