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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s decision to slap 10% tariffs on imported surfboards convinced surf executive Sue Bowers to move factory jobs out of China - but not back to the United States, which was one goal of Trump’s tariffs.

Strict environmental rules and steep labor costs have sent scores of Southern California surfboard manufacturers to China. Now, the tariffs have Bowers and other executives searching for factories in places such as Thailand and Vietnam.

“This was Surf City,” said Bowers, general manager of Southern California Sports Industries in Orange County.

“I would like to have our production back here,” said Bowers, whose office/warehouse is decorated with surf legend Mike Doyle’s artwork and filled with surfboards bearing his name.

Instead, Bowers - not a surfer herself but who learned the ins-and-outs of surfboard construction from Doyle - is joining the growing list of U.S. manufacturers and retailers reconfiguring supply chains in the wake of the Trump’s bitter trade war with China.

She was among a half dozen U.S. surf company executives who told Reuters they support using trade policy to shelter their homegrown industry from a daunting wave of international competition.

They are skeptical, however, about the President’s latest round of tariffs, which on Sept. 1 will levy the first U.S. import taxes on surfboards.

“There are way too many things that need to change before we can bring jobs back,” said Bowers, referring to U.S. labor costs and anti-pollution rules governing the use of materials to make surfboards.

Trump delayed putting the 10% duty on cellphones, laptops and other consumer goods in hopes of blunting their impact on U.S. holiday sales. But surfboards and many other products did not win a reprieve.

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Imported Wavestorm surfboards are shown for

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