A new study by UCLA concludes a trade war with China — being touted by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump — would inflict serious damage on California.
"For California, a trade war will reduce the demand for labor. There goes that full employment," Jerry Nickelsburg, an economist who co-wrote the UCLA Anderson Forecast,
told The Los Angeles Times.
The newspaper says one reason is that the Golden State has the "largest port complex" in the United States, which brings in 40 percent of all cargo arriving by sea.
As president, Trump said he would seek legislation to add a 45 percent tax on imported goods from China, in a bid to boost manufacturing in the United States.
But J .W. Mason, a professor of economics at John Jay College and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute,
told The New York Times last month:
"There's no way a tariff of this kind could deliver the kind of benefits that he's talking about, and it's quite wrong to think that the big problem for American workers has been foreign trade. But I think it could be very destructive for the rest of the world."
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