While U.S. President Donald Trump is brandishing a tariff stick around the world, the governor of a U.S. state is bucking the trend and seeking cooperation in China at a special time for U.S.-China economic and trade relations in an effort to break through Trump's "tariff taboo." He is Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. On September 15, local time, Snyder arrived in China for his eighth and final visit to China. During his eight years as governor, Snyder led Michigan's major economic and trade delegations to China almost every year. First Financial Reporter learned that during the 10-day visit to China, Snyder and his team visited five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Hangzhou. During Snyder's visit to China, the White House announced that it would increase tariffs by 10 percent on about $200 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S. from September 24 and raise them further to 25 percent from January 1, 2019. On September 24, China released a white paper on the facts of China-U.S. economic and trade frictions and China's position. The white paper expounds China's eight positions on China-U.S. economic and trade frictions. He also pointed out that for China and the United States, cooperation is the only correct choice, win-win situation can lead to a better future. Michigan, the "automotive capital of North America", is lying on its own today. As a result, trade frictions between China and the United States have become an inevitable topic of Snyder's trip. Snyder's visit shows Michigan's desire to buck the trend and try to work with China to get out of the cloud of trade friction.
"As governor, I have serious concerns about the U.S.-China trade friction and hope that this is a proper solution in the short term." During his visit to Shanghai, Snyder told First Financial. "Trade frictions have hearted Michigan." Michigan has been the first state to suffer recently from rising trade frictions between the U.S. and China. A U.S. think tank analyzed the direct economic impact of trade frictions on U.S. states, comparing their 2017 regional gross domestic product (GDP) and international trade as a share of the state's GDP. The results showed that Michigan was the worst affected.
According to the data, the state's international trade accounted for 38.9% of the state's GDP in 2017. In addition to the foreign-dependent development model, automobiles and agriculture are the backbone of Michigan's economic development and employment. Both are precisely the "victims" of Mr. Trump's trade frictions.
In 2016, the state's agricultural exports were about $3.18 billion ($21.8 billion), mainly to Canada, Japan, China and Mexico, according to data obtained by the Michigan Department of Economic Development (MEDC), the state's investment promotion agency. It's worth noting that the state's agricultural products contribute an average of $101.2 billion a year to the state's economy, and that agriculture solves the employment problem of 22 percent of the state's population.
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