Poll: Majority of Swing Voters Support Tariffs on Imported Chinese Products

The majority of swing voters say they support imposing tariffs on products imported from China, a new poll reveals.

The latest Quinnipiac University Poll found that a majority of swing voters, 55 percent, support tariffs on Chinese imports, as President Trump has sought to do.

The vast majority of Republican voters, 75 percent, said they support tariffs on China, while a majority of Americans overall support tariffs on China as well.

American men are the most supportive demographic group of tariffs on imported Chinese products, with nearly 60 percent saying they support imposing trade barriers on China.

On Trump’s handling of trade — where the populist president has taken major steps to enact his economic nationalist agenda — nearly 80 percent of Republican voters said they approve of trade actions thus far.

The overwhelming support among GOP voters for Trump’s economic nationalist approach to trade through tariffs and tough negotiations shows the length to which the donor class is out of step with Americans.

For example, the billionaire Koch brothers have announced the launching of a 2018 campaign to promote unpopular free trade, despite the Republican base’s support for economic nationalism.

Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. For example, in a report by the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs, were lost due to the country’s trade deficit with China.

Of the 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost in that time period, about 2.6 million were lost in the crippled manufacturing industry, making up about three-fourths of the loss of jobs from the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit.

The Rust Belt has been one of the hardest regions hit because of U.S. free trade with Mexico. In total, about 700,000 U.S. have been displaced, including:

• 14,500 American workers displaced in Wisconsin
• 43,600 American workers displaced in Michigan
• 2,600 American workers displaced in West Virginia
• 26,300 American workers displaced in Pennsylvania
• 34,900 American workers displaced in Ohio
• 34,300 American workers displaced in New York
• 6,500 American workers displaced in Iowa
• 24,400 American workers displaced in Indiana
• 34,700 American workers displaced in Illinois

Meanwhile, since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect in the 1990s, at least one million net U.S. jobs have been lost because of the free trade deal. Between 2000 and 2014, there have been about five million manufacturing jobs lost across the country as trade deficits continue soaring.

One former steel town in West Virginia lost 94 percent of its steel jobs because of NAFTA, with nearly 10,000 workers in the town being displaced from the steel industry.