Trump base in E. Washington may suffer trade war casualties

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Donald Trump swept Eastern Washington's Grant County in 2016, garnering more than 65 percent of the vote and a two-to-one victory over Hillary Clinton.

Less than two years later, a bipartisan group of Washington lawmakers is appealing to the Trump administration against going into a trade war with China, saying Grant County could be hit with severe job loss.

A firm called the Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) Silicon, in Moses Lake, manufacturers polysilicon materials, a key component in the production of semiconductors, solar panels and other technology products.

But the firm recently laid off 95 workers in Moses Lake, about 40 percent of its work force. The cause: tariffs and retaliation between the United States and China.

The conflict began before Trump assumed office, but shows that trade wars have casualties. The United States in 2014 slapped a tariff on imports of Chinese energy products. The Chinese retaliated with a tariff on polysilicon materials.

An unusual bipartisan team from Washington's congressional delegation -- Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash. -- are warning that the situation could become a whole lot worse.

They fired off a letter Monday to a half-dozen senior administration officials, saying:

"On July 2, REC announced the layoff of nearly 40 percent of its workforce in Moses Lake, amounting to approximately 95 employees across the company. At REC's manufacturing facility in Butte (Montana), many workers have also lost their jobs.

"We fear further job losses may follow in the near term. Job loss to this degree hits particularly hard in rural communities like Moses Lake, where the unemployment rate stands at 6.2 percent, almost double the national average."

-more-

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Connelly-Trump-base-Eastern-Washington-tariffs-13101861.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletterspi&utm_term=spi

[kimbutgar]

1. I hope these workers when they are laid off are told the reason why they are losing their jobs

Is because of Twitlers tariffs. Be a use we all know Fox and the right wing propaganda media industrial complex will find a way to twist it that it’s the Democratic Party and President Obama’s fault.

[brewens]

2. I'm moving to Grant county now that I am retired. My girlfriend and I own her place

and a rental. I had hoped to transfer there while still working, but my company never made the necessary expansion in that area. I did work over there a couple times, and one of the places was REC.

It is a depressed area for sure, but I'll be living in a tiny town that is pretty nice, and even has a well rated school. For years I kind of wondered if the cart did come before the horse over there? Is there high unemployment because no one wants to start up over here because of the available work force? It seemed like about every other guy I met was an alcoholic pillhead, and the meth use was rampant.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. What part of Grant County do you live?

I have a sister who lives in Ephrata but teaches in the Quincy School district.

I've met more people there who work for the government there than I have in Snohomish County where I live.