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Poll results

Two very different views on trade were voiced during May 16-22 World Trade Week, by Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump.

In her keynote speech Friday at the luncheon of the Maine International Trade Day conference in Portland, Mills highlighted the toll that trade tensions between the United States and China are taking on Maine businesses. For example, Tom Adams, CEO of Maine Coast lobster wholesale company in York, told Mainebiz in March that 80% of his company’s sales to mainland China evaporated after China implemented a 25% tariff on lobster imports in response to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on various Chinese goods.

"Engaging in trade wars is a risky proposition, with tremendous and possibly dangerous implications for Maine people,” Mills said, according to a report by Maine Public. “The administration in Washington should be using a scalpel to improve trade, not a hammer."

Mills said that as many as 4,400 jobs in Maine have been put at risk by the tariffs. 

President Trump, on the other hand, in a May 17 proclamation at the start of World Trade Week, said “free, fair, and reciprocal trade is essential to American and global prosperity.”

Trump justified the tariffs his administration imposed on China and other countries last year, stating: “My Administration’s leadership in strongly pursuing fair trade is enabling our nation’s firms to compete on a more level, fair playing field.  We are working to modernize and improve our agreements, negotiating new trade deals that protect our national security and are based on fairness and reciprocity.”

He called on Congress to quickly approve the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement his administration negotiated, saying it “will help address longstanding trade imbalances by granting American businesses across all sectors of our economy greater freedom to sell their goods and services throughout North America.”

Whose views on tariffs and trade do you agree with more?
Gov. Janet Mills (51%, 57 VOTES)
President Donald Trump (49%, 54 VOTES)
Poll Description

Two very different views on trade were voiced during May 16-22 World Trade Week, by Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump.

In her keynote speech Friday at the luncheon of the Maine International Trade Day conference in Portland, Mills highlighted the toll that trade tensions between the United States and China are taking on Maine businesses. For example, Tom Adams, CEO of Maine Coast lobster wholesale company in York, told Mainebiz in March that 80% of his company’s sales to mainland China evaporated after China implemented a 25% tariff on lobster imports in response to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on various Chinese goods.

"Engaging in trade wars is a risky proposition, with tremendous and possibly dangerous implications for Maine people,” Mills said, according to a report by Maine Public. “The administration in Washington should be using a scalpel to improve trade, not a hammer."

Mills said that as many as 4,400 jobs in Maine have been put at risk by the tariffs. 

President Trump, on the other hand, in a May 17 proclamation at the start of World Trade Week, said “free, fair, and reciprocal trade is essential to American and global prosperity.”

Trump justified the tariffs his administration imposed on China and other countries last year, stating: “My Administration’s leadership in strongly pursuing fair trade is enabling our nation’s firms to compete on a more level, fair playing field.  We are working to modernize and improve our agreements, negotiating new trade deals that protect our national security and are based on fairness and reciprocity.”

He called on Congress to quickly approve the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement his administration negotiated, saying it “will help address longstanding trade imbalances by granting American businesses across all sectors of our economy greater freedom to sell their goods and services throughout North America.”

  • 111 Votes
  • 4 Comments
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4 Comments

  • May 30, 2019
    The president's views on tariffs are completely wrong. The only people hurt by the tariffs are the American people, who will have to pay higher prices for everything imported from China. And in return, sales of American products into China are hurting so bad the American taxpayers are footing a $28 billion bailout package. So, it looks like the tariffs are just plain stupid.
  • May 29, 2019
    As an employer of 100 full-time employees in rural Maine I'm convinced that the tariffs have been long overdue. They have proven to be good and necessary for our business. I'd also say that I'd bank on the business experience of the President up against that of the Governor all day long. A glance at some of the ill-conceived, anti-business policies already enacted thus far in her term casts a dark shadow over many, if not most, businesses in this state.
  • Alison Jacobs
    May 29, 2019

    This is like comparing an orange to a watermelon. One leader is looking at the economy of one state and one is looking at the economy of 50 states as a whole.

  • May 29, 2019

    National trade policy can't be dictated by Maine lobster shipments. Intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers are slightly more important in the grand scheme of things.