Alibaba’s Jack Ma backs down from promise to Trump to bring 1 million jobs to the US
- Jack Ma, founder of Chinese retail giant Alibaba, has recanted his promise to Donald Trump to create 1 million U.S. jobs.
- Ma’s statements come on the heels of a new round of tariffs from both the U.S. and China.
- Experts have said that Ma’s vow to create 1 million jobs linked to merchants selling their goods on the company’s platform within five years was lofty to begin with.
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese retail giant Alibaba, says the company no longer plans to create 1 million jobs in the United States in the wake of the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China.
Ma made his original job creation pronouncement during a high-profile meeting with Donald Trump in January 2017 before Trump’s inauguration as president.
“The promise was made on the premise of friendly US-China partnership and rational trade relations,” Ma told Chinese news site Xinhua on Wednesday. “That premise no longer exists today, so our promise cannot be fulfilled.”
U.S., China have lots of ‘ammunition’ and trade spat could escalate -WTO chief
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The trade dispute between the United States and China could well expand into other areas given the significant “ammunition” the two countries have, the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Wednesday.