As negotiators from the U.S. and China meet this week in Beijing to try to reach a trade agreement that will ease tensions between the two countries, the Washington Council on International Trade last week released a report that details the industries and regions in Washington that have a major stake in the outcome.
The study, which can be found on the council’s website, https://wcit.org/, provides county-by-county and district-by-district analysis of Washington’s trade ties with China.
The Port of Vancouver praised the report, noting that Washington is “the most trade-dependent state in the nation.”
The port’s statement also says: “As demonstrated in WCIT’s report, Clark County is a major Washington state exporter of goods to China. The Port of Vancouver USA primarily exports grains to Asia and much of our soybean tonnage goes to China. Our 2018 soybean exports were significantly impacted by China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods; soybean exports in 2018 were down nearly 26 percent over 2017. While this decline is balanced by the port’s diverse mix of cargoes, it underlines the challenges ports, communities and industries face because of the lack of clarity in global trade policy.”
