Trump’s Trade War Could Put Cannabis Vape in Danger

Cannabis vape companies afraid of long-term impact on safety crisis as Trump’s trade war causse Chinese tariffs raising, So major cannabis vaporizer companies increasingly are moving manufacturing operations away from China, due in part to a 20% tariff enacted by the Trump Administration.

Now, some operators fear price compression accompanying the tariffs – now totaling 45% for goods manufactured in China – will prompt unscrupulous operators to purchase cut-rate vape cartridges and other inputs, potentially jeopardizing consumer health. Executives from many U.S.-based vape companies say the process of finding – and, in some cases, building – new manufacturing operations has been a years-long endeavor that is getting renewed attention because of the tariffs.

Shenzhen, China, is a well-known manufacturing hub located near Hong Kong, a financial and shipping powerhouse; together, the Special Economic Zone still responsible for producing the majority of the world’s vape hardware. But that is changing, albeit slowly.

Vape safety concerns

Several vape executives shared concerns that the new tariffs on Chinese imports would prompt U.S. companies to purchase lower quality materials in an effort to keep costs flat. Such a move, they worry, could jeopardize consumer health.

“You have a lot of vape companies that take great pride in the quality of their products and don’t cut corners – and as a result, their prices are higher than vape cartridges that you could order off of Alibaba, for example,” said Active’s Fischer, who also is president of VapeSafer an industry group that advocates for the vape industry as well as consumer safety.

“There’s a real concern that, as the prices of vape cartridges rise, those cartridges and components of more dubious origin and quality will become more prominent – and not necessarily even in the regulated market, but in the illicit market,” he said.

The problem, according to CCell’s Kovacevich, speaks to how cash-strapped many U.S. cannabis operators are.

“In a normal industry, you would have seen people loading up on goods” ahead of the tariffs being implemented, as President Trump began speaking about a trade war during the 2024 campaign season.

Instead, Kovacevich said, “There’s not enough capital, so people are just going to wait to cross that bridge when they get to it.”

When shopping for vape hardware, Fischer encouraged cannabis operators to ask suppliers to provide results of heavy metal testing, BPA testing and proof that harmful contaminants are not leaching into cannabis oil when the product is heated.

“They should be able to answer questions about their testing protocol and then, ideally, have the ability to do shelf-stability testing and see if there’s leaching over time,” Fischer said.

However, Ispire Technology, the Los Angeles-based, cannabis-focused arm of e-cigarette company Aspire, also has diversified manufacturing operations, with about a third of products finished on the company’s manufacturing lines in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Ispire is building a second factory in Malaysia capable of accommodating 70 production lines, some of which will be dedicated to cannabis vape products.

During Trump’s first term in 2018 , all of Ispire’s manufacturing was in China, but increased talk about a trade war and tariffs made executives reconsider their strategy.

“We came to the conclusion it doesn’t matter who is in the White House; the geopolitical train has left the station, and it will not come back,” Michael Wang, co-CEO of Ispire, told MJBizDaily.

“Sure enough, even when President Biden was in office, he continued President Trump’s tariff approach to China, so that further enhanced our belief.”

According to Wang, the governments of Malaysia and Singapore are trying to recreate the manufacturing and shipping collaboration popularized by Shenzhen and Hong Kong, with good results.

While manufacturing in Malaysia initially was slightly more expensive than in China, the new 2025 tariffs levied against Chinese products – a 10% tariff was announced Feb. 1, followed by another 10% tariff last week – could help balance the total cost of goods.