Kentucky governor on US-China cooperation: 'We need each other'

From farms in Iowa to Capitol Hill, the anxiety arising from the trade conflict between China and the US seems unabated, as the Office of the United States Trade Representative on Monday kicked off a weeklong hearing on a new round of proposed tariffs on Chinese products.

What can US states do now in a time of uncertainty and uneasiness as the world's two largest economies are embroiled in an intensifying trade dispute?

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin seems to have a sure answer: Do whatever is within his gubernatorial powers to promote connections with China, particularly encourage investment.

And the Republican governor said that he would adopt a more programmatic and seemingly detached approach to the current trade dispute, citing wisdom he said came from his East Asian studies at college, which asks people to see the long term and big picture.

"I would encourage all of us, West, East and otherwise, to understand it's important to be patient to work slowly to realize that we need each other," he said. "America and China are stronger as trading partners as allies. We need each other and want this to work well."

Bevin invited Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai to visit Kentucky last week for talks and tours that seemed to have yielded consensus and tangible results.

In meeting the media after their talks, Bevin conceded that tariffs are set on a level that he doesn't have direct input into as a governor, and he said that he can't spend time worrying about what might happen because so many others are part of the negotiation process.

"What I know is I can control from the bottom up, who comes, whom we talk to, and what kind of personal relationships and business relationships we are establishing to ensure that no matter what happens at this level, we will continue to become stronger and closer, nation to nation and people to people," he said.

It wasn't surprising that the governor would tout to members of the Chinese press Kentucky's advantages: energy costs and logistics convenience, as well as its massive investment in workforce training. For Bevin wants to see more Chinese investors pouring into his state to create additional jobs to the nearly 9,000 already provided by Chinese investments.

Cui assured him that China's business community has a strong interest in the United States in general, and in Kentucky in particular.

Two days after meeting with the top Chinese envoy, Bevin announced that Global Win Wickliffe LLC, a Chinese-owned paper products manufacturer, will reopen the former Verso Corp mill in west Kentucky's Ballard County, with a $150 million investment expected to create 500 full-time jobs.

To encourage investment and job growth in the community, on Thursday the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave the company preliminary approval for up to $25 million in tax incentives through the Kentucky Business Investment program.

Bevin said he would like to see 200 Chinese-owned companies employing people in Kentucky in two decades and he envisioned rosy prospects for exports to China, now Kentucky's fourth-largest trade destination.

During the visit, Cui said, "Abraham Lincoln, a native Kentuckian, stands for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We in China now stress people-centered development. People's aspiration for a better life is our goal. This is the only goal for China."

For Kentucky, the rising number of China's middle class, which is almost as large as the population of the US, means a tremendous market, according to Bevin. He said he would lead a delegation to attend the 2018 China International Import Expo in November in Shanghai.

"It should excite those of us in the United States, and specifically in Kentucky, that make products, that make goods and services that the world can consume," he said.

Perhaps now with the specter of escalating tariffs, business communities need this kind of excitement, as well as Bevin's pragmatic approach for relations between the US and China: "We need each other and want this to work well."

Contact the writer at huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com