Locke Foundation: North Carolina Economy at Risk in a Trade War

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The John Locke Foundation has released a study that examines the risk to North Carolina’s agricultural economy, and to the state’s economy more broadly, from a trade war between the US and some of its largest trading partners. The study is authored by North Carolina State University professor Jeffrey Dornman. He estimates that the state’s farmers would lose one-third of their income if retaliatory tariffs were put in place by the major US trading partners, and he estimates that this would result in the loss of approximately 8,000 jobs, primarily in North Carolina’s rural communities. Finally, he concludes that the total economic loss to the state from retaliatory tariffs would result in a 2% hit to North Carolina’s GDP. The full 36-page study is available on the Foundation’s web site.

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