Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that California will look for ways to expand trade and persuade international partners to exempt the state from global payback as President Trump’s sweeping round of tariffs have sent U.S. and global financial markets tumbling.
“Donald Trump’s tariffs do not represent all Americans,” Newsom said in a video posted Friday on the social media platform X. The 40 million residents of California, he said, live in “the tent pole of the US economy” that represents 14% of the nation’s GDP and is the fifth-largest economy in the world.
Newsom said he had directed his administration to “look at new opportunities to expand trade and to remind our trading partners around the globe that California remains a stable partner.”
California is a major trading partner globally, and tariffs could adversely impact many sectors of the state’s economy, from the tech industry to agriculture and the ports. But it’s unclear exactly how Newsom’s efforts to carve out exemptions would work or whether a state can forge such exceptions.
Newsom’s office said in a news release that it would work to pursue “collaborative opportunities with trading partners” that protect California’s economic interests — workers, manufacturers, and businesses — and the broader supply chains linked to the state’s economy. The administration will explore ways to “support job creation and innovation in industries reliant on cross-border trade, promote economic stability for businesses and workers impacted by federal trade disruptions [and] safeguard access to critical supplies, such as construction materials needed for recovery efforts following the devastating Los Angeles firestorms.”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, responded by saying “Gavin Newsom should focus on out-of-control homelessness, crime, regulations, and unaffordability in California instead of trying his hand at international dealmaking.”
Stock markets worldwide careened…