US firms in China say Donald Trump’s tariffs will hurt them, not make them move home
American Chamber of Commerce reports ‘strong negative impact’ on its member companies and says only 6 per cent would consider moving to US
US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese products will “cause suffering” for US businesses in China and fail to persuade them to relocate to the United States, the trade group representing the interests of US businesses in China has said.
The group also said about half of the US firms in China were worried about a “strong negative impact” on their operations from an escalated trade war.
William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in China, said China would be able to “dig its heels in”, preventing a short-term resolution to the trade war, and “no one will emerge victorious from this counterproductive cycle”.
Zarit said the Chinese government had plenty of measures to disrupt the operations of US firms in China and Trump’s hopes of bringing US businesses back home were misplaced.
“This will not result in bringing more business back to American soil: just 6 per cent of our member companies say this current US-China trade dispute would make them consider relocating operations back home,” he said in the statement.