The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and executives from massive tech conglomerates have teamed up to fight President Trump’s upcoming tariffs on Chinese imports.
In complaints to Trump’s Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the Chamber of Commerce — proponents of endless free trade — claimed that the soon to be enacted tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would damage the American economy.
“USTRs proposed tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports dramatically expands the harm to American consumers, workers, businesses, and the economy,” Chamber of Commerce executives wrote, according to CNBC.
Likewise, Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, and other tech corporations — all of which rely heavily on Chinese imports and outsourcing of American jobs — complained that the tariffs on China “would cause disproportionate economic harm to American internet companies.”
Silicon Valley corporations like Uber, Bird, and Lime have already complained that tariffs on Chinese imports will mean less made in China “e-bikes” and scooters in the Bay Area of California.
“Putting a sizeable tariff on scooters will do little to impact the Chinese economy, but risks the stratospheric growth of an American success story without the benefit of supporting an alternative American electric scooter manufacturer,” executives at Bird wrote in a statement.
Trump’s tariffs on imported steel, aluminum, washing machines, and other foreign goods have delivered more than 11,000 American jobs in less than six months, as Breitbart News reported.
The preferred free trade absolutism of the Washington, D.C. establishment and business roundtable has coincided with more than five million American jobs being eliminated in the U.S. economy.
Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. Between 2001 and 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost due to the country’s trade deficit with China, as Breitbart News reported.
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.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.