These CT Industries Hit Hardest In Tit-For-Tat U.S.-China Trade War

CONNECTICUT — President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war puts about $1.5 billion in exports and 7,600 jobs on the line for Connecticut businesses and industries, according to the U.S.-China Business Council.

Trump pulled back on some tariffs Wednesday, leaving a 10 percent across-the-board tariff in place, but delaying more punitive taxes for 90 days with a lone exception. China increased its duties on U.S. goods to 125 percent in response to the tariffs, and Trump stuck back by raising the duty on imports from China to 145 percent.

The stock market quickly responded to the announcement, with stocks surging to one of their highest gains since World War II, but then cooled off.

In 2023, U.S. exports to China amounted to $144.9 billion and supported almost 1 million jobs. The tariffs have divergent effects on states, even within industries. The hardest hit are those that produce soybeans, semiconductors, pharmaceutical preparations and crude oil, the top U.S. exports to China.

Connecticut's main exports to China are aerospace products and parts under the goods category, which in 2023 totaled $443 million, according to the council. Education, under the services category, was the state's next biggest export to China at $226 million.

The state's 1st Congressional District leads the way with more than half of Connecticut's aerospace products and parts exports to China, a fact not lost on Congressman John Larson, who represents the district.

In an effort to fight back against the Trump tariffs, Larson introduced the Prevent Tariff Abuse Act, with Reps. Suzan DelBene and Don Beyer, "to block the President from abusing his power to impose these cost-raising tariffs."

"President-elect Trump is threatening to impose broad and unreasonable tariffs to tax low-income and middle-class Americans, while promising another round of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and billion-dollar corporations," Larson said in a statement. "House Democrats are focused on delivering for working families, not the wealthy."

Of the $144.9 billion in exports in 2023, $125 billion was for products grown, produced or manufactured domestically, and the remainder was for foreign goods re-exported to China, according to the U.S.-China Business Council report,

More than 931,000 U.S. jobs are supported by exports to China, outnumbering those supported by the next two Asian markets combined, the report said. Agriculture and livestock exports to China support more U.S. jobs than any other sector by a wide margin.

The report noted that U.S. exports to China dropped by 4.3 percent in 2023 due to stunted economic growth in China, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and strained U.S.-China relationships, as well as long-standing barriers such as tariffs. Soybeans, other oilseeds, and grains fell by $7 billion.

“Challenges in that sector worsen if other producers continue to become more competitive or if these products are targeted in a future tariff spat,” the report said.

Exports of semiconductors have also fallen by several billion dollars, or 52 percent since the peak in 2021. Oregon was among the hardest hit states by the national decline in this category.

The full 2024 report on U.S. exports to China is available online.