California can lose most in trade dispute between US, China: Report

LOS ANGELES - Although the trade dispute between the United States and China seems to mainly concern Midwest farmers and workers, who disproportionately voted for Donald Trump in 2016 elections, California and the West Coast could have lost the most, a latest report has warned.

A report of Sacramento Bee newspaper Thursday quoted analysis of the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan DC think tank, saying Los Angeles has the largest number of jobs at risk compared with any county across the country, with about 40,000 people working in industries that could be affected by the tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries.

King and Snohomish counties in Washington state are closely behind, each with about 39,000 jobs that could be affected, while Ventura, Fresno, San Diego, Kern, Alameda, Napa, Sonoma and Monterey counties in California and Yakima County in Washington also rank among the top 25.

Brookings Institution released the results of the research this Monday, showing how China's proposed tariffs against a trade conflict ignited by Washington would affect the US workers and industries.

Some parts of California, which have high concentrations of jobs in one of those critical California industries, could be affected, the research said, adding that the agriculture industry is only one of them.

For example, Napa, Sonoma, Stanislaus and San Luis Obispo counties top the country in the numbers of wine industry jobs, while fruit and nut growers would bear most of the impact of tariffs in Fresno, Ventura and Monterey counties.

The jobs at stake in Alameda Country are largely linked to Tesla's Fremont factory, Los Angeles and San Diego counties also employ thousands of people in aircraft manufacturing, as well as pharmaceuticals.

Politics are another part of the story, the report of Sacramento Bee mentioned since neither California nor Washington voted for Trump in the electoral college and the two states both clashed with the White House on a number of contested policies, such as immigration and environmental regulations.

"If President Trump follows through on his trade threats against China, it will open a broad new front in his administration's war with California." the report predicted.