Nebraska governor fears tariff war but still hopeful

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts expressed deep concern on Monday over possible tit-for-tat tariffs between China and the United States but is optimistic that a negotiated solution could be found.

Ricketts, a businessman-turned-politician, said that the tariffs proposed by the Trump administration against China are "certainly a cause for concern among our farmers and ranchers".

Nebraska is caught in the crossfire of a potential tariff war between the two countries, with Chinese retaliatory tariffs targeting a number of US agriculture products following the US' imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs in the name of national security and a threat to slap tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese imports under Section 301 of US Trade Act of 1974.

"Agriculture is our largest industry in Nebraska and the heart and soul about what we do. It's about 20 percent of our overall state economy, and one in four jobs in Nebraska is tied back to agriculture," Ricketts said on Monday morning on C-SPAN from Lincoln, the state capital.

He said there is concern when China is talking about potential tariffs, and people in Nebraska are worried that something will happen with the tariffs. "That brings uncertainty," said Ricketts, who traveled to China in 2015 and 2016.

"Now the good news is we got time to work this out," said Ricketts, a Republican who became governor in 2015.

Noting that it's the beginning of the planting season, Ricketts said there is some time to conclude a trade negotiation with China.

"That's really what we are encouraging the administration to do. We want to get this trade negotiation done so we can continue to enjoy the market access in China and that mutually beneficial relationship through trade," he said.

Ricketts' talk came three days after a senior US team led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin concluded a two-day talk in Beijing on bilateral trade and investment issues.

Ricketts, a part-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and whose father Joe Ricketts is the founder of brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, said there are opportunities for Nebraska to further expand into the Chinese market, citing China's resumption last year of US beef imports.

China lifted its ban on US beef imports imposed about 14 years ago upon concern over mad cow disease. Nebraska is the top US beef-exporting state and was the fifth-largest pork-exporter in 2017.

China is Nebraska's second-largest goods-export market in 2017 after Canada and was its third-largest services-export market in 2016, trailing Canada and the United Kingdom. Oilseeds, grains and meat products are Nebraska's largest export items to China, according to a report by the US-China Business Council on April 30.

Nebraska's goods-exports to China jumped by 92 percent in the past decade, compared with 15 percent to the rest of the world. Its services-exports to China during the period shot up 454 percent, compared with 65 percent to the rest of the world.

Matthew Slaughter, dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, said that uncertainty brought by Trump's trade policy is already hurting the US economy and jobs.

"Even if the United States avoids a full-blown trade war, the country is already incurring economic damage by raising uncertainty about future economic policy and eroding its authority in international policymaking," he wrote on Foreign Affairs on Monday.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com