What they say

Editor's Note: Five sitting US governors speak with China Daily about the Sino-US trade relationship on the sidelines of the 2019 National Governors Association Winter Meeting, which took place Saturday and Sunday in Washington.

We believe it would be beneficial for China and the US to come to an agreement on trade. We get a lot of products from China. We have a lot of personal and business relationships with China. Being able to see those (trade talks) continue and get strong agreement is very important and interesting to me as a governor. Hawaii Governor David Ige

My hope is for some resolution. It is important for the two largest economies in the world to have a good, constructive, open trade relationship with one another. Between the two of us, we have 40 percent of the world’s GDP, so of course we have to work together. When both countries are doing well, then they are both doing better. That’s really what I hope to see. I know President Trump wants to see a resolution. I believe President Xi wants to see a resolution. But it needs to be open and fair and with equitable trade. If we can get to that point, then I’m confident it will be good for every state in America, including Kentucky, because we have a strong trade partnership with China directly from Kentucky. We’re looking forward to the conference (China-US Governors Forum) May 21 to 23 (in Kentucky), with governors from the US and governors from China. Every one of them will be invited, and a number of them will come. Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin

I hope they will come to a compromise in the trade situation; the tariffs don’t help anyone. It’s our hope they’ll come to some reasonable understanding. We can get everybody together and keep the economy going well in both countries. I hope it opens markets to Nevada products and obviously also opens Nevada to Chinese products, you know, the different items that are available, working with major corporations that do development in terms of gaming technology, products going back and forth. That’s what we want to see continue. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak

I applaud both President Xi and President Trump for working very hard to narrow the differences and reach the agreement. I am optimistic we will be able to reach agreement because it is important for both countries. From the United States’ perspective, we want to reduce the imbalance of trade; we want to reduce tariffs. From Arkansas’ standpoint, global trade is very important to us, from Walmart and Tyson’s presence in China to our ability to export rice and other

agricultural products, but it’s also the investments that come from China to Arkansas. And we are proud of a number of different investments in manufacturing, and we want to make sure there are not any tariff barriers to prevent those types of investments. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson

I love our relationship with China. China is a key trading partner with our state. I made multiple visits (to China) in my career as a public official and look forward to continue building the relationship. I hope the trade talks will be mutually beneficial for our state and for the country of China. It will help develop economic opportunities for our people in Oregon and for the people of China as well. Oregon Governor Kate Brown