A Microscopic Presentation of Global Trade Inequality in the Yiwu Market

Abstract: This study examines how racial discrimination within the Yiwu Small Commodities Market contributes to global trade inequality and the structural decline of India’s retail sector. Drawing on 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with toy merchants in Yiwu, the research analyzes how social perceptions, online racial stereotypes, and market dynamics intersect to shape discriminatory business practices toward Indian buyers. The findings reveal systematic patterns of unequal treatment, including stricter payment requirements, restricted access to production facilities, differential pricing strategies, and exclusionary service behaviors. These practices are reinforced by negative representations of India and Indian people in Chinese digital media ecosystems and are further institutionalized through interpersonal information-sharing among market vendors. At the macroeconomic level, such micro-level discrimination constrains Indian retailers’ access to cost-effective supply chains, increases transaction costs, destabilizes procurement networks, and exacerbates structural trade asymmetries between China and India. By linking everyday market interactions to broader patterns of global inequality, this study demonstrates how localized social biases can generate transnational economic consequences and calls for greater scholarly attention to discrimination within informal and small-commodity trade systems.