20th Sep 2018 06:43
BEIJING (Alliance News) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's founder and chairman Jack Ma has said that the Chinese e-commerce giant no longer plans to create 1 million jobs in the US, citing the ongoing trade conflict between the US and China as the reason.
"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."
"The current situation has already ruined that. There is no way to complete the promise now, but we won't stop working hard to promote the healthy development of China-US trade."
Ma had made the promise to create 1 million jobs in the US during a meeting with Donald Trump in January 2017 before Trump's inauguration as president.
"1 million jobs over the next five years by enabling 1 million American small businesses and farmers to sell US goods to China and Asian consumers on the Alibaba platform," Ma had said then.
Last week, Ma announced his plans to step down as Alibaba executive chairman in a year. Ma will continue as executive chairman of the company over the next 12 months to ensure a smooth transition of the chairmanship to CEO Daniel Zhang, who will succeed as chairman. He denied rumors that he was being forced out.
Yesterday, Ma said that trade frictions between the US and China could last for twenty years decades and is going to be "a mess" for all parties involved.
The Trump administration has imposed a 10% import tariff on another USD200 billion worth of goods made in China, bringing the total to more than USD500 billion. The tariffs are set to increase to 25% in 2019. The tariffs will go into effect on September 24.