Trump's Trade War Will Kill U.S. Jobs - Alibaba's Jack Ma

by Michael London | 09/25/2018 5:28 PM

In a recent report by China's Xinhua news agency, Jack Ma, the Chairman of Alibaba, said they could no longer meet their promise to create 1 million jobs in the US due to trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Ma previously warned that the trade war between the two large economies could continue for decades and that China should rather focus on exports to the "Silk Road" trade route, including Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Ma met with Trump two years ago and outlined the company’s plan to bring 1 million small U.S. businesses onto its platform in the next five years to supply products to Chinese consumers.

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Ma told Xinhua that the commitment was based on friendly China-U.S. collaboration and the premise of bilateral trade. As the current situation has however destroyed the original premise, the promise could not be delivered.

Although Ma did not provide details on how those jobs would be added, he has indicated that the idea was to encourage small American businesses to sell on Alibaba’s marketplace Tmall and Taobao. The rationale was that each new business joining the platform would have to employ one person to manage the additional sales.

Investors did not seem fazed by Ma's comments, and Alibaba’s share price closed at 3.8% higher. They have however declined by 5.7% so far this year, including these gains.

Ma's latest comments follow others he made recently about the escalating trade conflict and shows that he supports Beijing's view on how added tariffs will affect businesses and China’s One Belt One Road foreign policy initiative.