President Donald Trump's tariff threats stand to impact the businesses responsible for producing displays that light up the skies.
On Oʻahu, the Hilton puts on a fireworks show in Waikīkī every Friday night. The company behind the show has been in charge of it for over 30 years.
Bruce Albrecht is operations manager for Hawaii Explosives & Pyrotechnics, Inc. He spoke with The Conversation on how the industry is dealing with the impacts of the triple-digit tariff threat on products from China. He said the industry had asked for an exemption, but so far no luck.
“During Trump's first term, our industry got an exemption, and so our industry trade group immediately went into action to try to get an exemption for this time around as well,” Albrecht said. “To have it announced that it was triple digits and across the board was definitely shocking. I don't think anybody expected that.”
He added that there is no way to absorb that significant of a price increase, and that the 145% tariff would essentially be a trade embargo.
This week, the tariffs on China were lowered from 145% to 30% for 90 days while Washington and Beijing negotiate a trade agreement.
“As a small business, you can't afford to pay two-and-a-half times the amount that you were expecting, anticipating for a container,” Albrecht said. “Those tariffs have to be paid before they'll release your product to you. So as a business owner, you got to come up with that money up front. And that's not an easy thing to do in the quantities that we're talking. For many smaller businesses, this was just a death knell.”
Many of the fireworks shows require planning stages that can start from six months to one year in advance.
Albrecht explained that customers are asking about pricing for events in 2026, but because of unpredictability around costs, he has no idea how to give a proper quote.
According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, the U.S. consumed 322.8 million pounds of fireworks in 2024. Albrecht believes that around 90% to 95% of all fireworks originate in China.
“They've been making fireworks for 600 years, and so the industry is pretty well established there,” Albrecht said. “It's going to be impossible to start manufacturing them in the U.S., much less Hawaiʻi… The labor costs are very high, and so it's just not something you're going to encourage."
Fortunately, the company was able to bring in products early for this year’s fireworks shows. However, Albrecht said that for 2026, they’ll just have to wait and see what the landscape holds in terms of global trade.
Albrecht also advised the public to leave fireworks displays to trained professionals.
”Our technicians have all received extensive training and follow very strict safety practices to avoid risk, and so we'd hate to see the commercial display industry negatively impacted by something like tariffs, because we do feel it offers a safe alternative for everyone."
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 16, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
