How China hit Donald Trump’s supporters where it hurts as tariffs target Republican Party’s heartlands
Beijing’s levies on agricultural products – which will directly affect areas represented by senior Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – will do little to calm the party’s jitters
Beijing’s latest tariffs have stepped up the pressure on US President Donald Trump by hitting his political base where it hurts ahead of congressional elections in November.
While Trump previously said a trade war would be “good and easy to win,” top Republicans have already sounded the alarm after many of the latest tariffs took direct aim at their constituents.
Beijing fired its latest salvo on Wednesday when it announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on 106 American products worth US$50 billion – including soybeans, pork and aircraft – in retaliation for Trump’s plan to impose duties on 1,333 Chinese products.
The tariffs on soybeans have grabbed much of the attention because they are America’s biggest single export to China, and will affect a number of rural states that heavily backed Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but many of the other measures will also hit farmers across Red State America.
The impact of a 15 per cent duty on ginseng, which was announced before the latest round of tariffs and came into effect on Monday, will be felt particularly acutely in Wisconsin, which accounts for 85 per cent of US exports of the crop to China.
The state, home to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, exports most of its ginseng to China. The majority is grown in the state’s Marathon county, where Trump beat his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by 47 percentage points in 2016.
Republicans in the state have already felt the force of a political backlash, with the state’s Republican governor warning of a “blue wave” after the surprise victory of Democratic candidate Rebecca Dallet this week for a seat on the state’s supreme court.