CalChamber Outlines Trade Priorities, Concerns for Federal Officials, Congress

Susanne T. Stirling, Senior Vice President, California Chamber of Commerce

As featured in the CalChamber website on March 4, 2024

CalChamber Trade Priorities and Concerns

In a letter to the secretaries and USTR, the California Chamber of Commerce emphasizes that it is committed to supporting a free trade agenda that fosters economic growth and job creation — and opposes protectionist measures, which disrupt global supply chains, raise consumer prices, and hinder the competitiveness of California businesses.

The letter points out that a focus on trade agreements instead will ultimately lower both tariff and non-tariff barriers and help create long-term, sustainable economic growth.

While strategic use of tariffs or the threat of tariffs may be a meaningful negotiation tool, the reality of tariffs would be quite different. Raising tariffs results in higher prices to the consumer for the specific product protected and in limited choices of products for consumers. Further, increased tariffs cause a net loss of jobs in related industries, retaliation by U.S. and California trading partners, and violate the spirit of our trade agreements.

The CalChamber instead seeks commercially meaningful outcomes in negotiations with regions around the world and supports bilateral, regional and multilateral trade agreements which are critical to consumers, workers, businesses, farmers and ranchers, and would allow the United States to compete with other countries that are already negotiating agreements with each other.

California is the fifth largest economy in the world with a gross state product of nearly $4 trillion. In 2023, California exported close to $180 billion to 227 foreign economies. Its top trade partners are the same as the United States: Mexico, Canada and China.

International trade and investment are a major part of the economic engine for the state of California that broadly benefits businesses, communities, consumers and state government. California’s economy is more diversified than ever before, and the state’s prosperity is tied to exports and imports of both goods and services by California-based companies, to exports and imports through California’s transportation gateways, and to inflows and outflows of human and capital resources.

The CalChamber, in keeping with longstanding policy, supports expansion of international trade and investment, fair and equitable market access for California products abroad, and elimination of disincentives that impede the international competitiveness of California business.

About Susanne T. Stirling

Susanne T. Stirling, Senior Vice President, International Affairs, has headed CalChamber international activities for more than four decades. She is an appointee of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to the National Export Council, and serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce International Policy Committee, the California International Relations Foundation, and the Chile-California Council. Originally from Denmark, she studied at the University of Copenhagen and holds a B.A. in international relations from the University of the Pacific, where she served as a regent from 2012 to 2021. She earned an M.A. from the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. See full bio.