Alibaba founder reverses on promise to create 1 million jobs in US

Alibaba founder Jack Ma on Wednesday backtracked on his plan to create 1 million jobs in the United States, two days after President Trump slapped tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

“The promise was made on the premise of friendly US-China partnership and rational trade relations,” Ma told Chinese news organization Xinhua, according to CNBC. “That premise no longer exists today, so our promise cannot be fulfilled.”

{mosads}Ma met with Trump at Trump Tower in January 2017, when Trump was president-elect. Trump said at the time that they had a “great meeting,” and Ma told reporters the two discussed plans to help small businesses in the U.S. sell agricultural products to Asia.

A spokesman for Alibaba said at the time that the plan would help create 1 million new jobs in the United States.

But trade relations between the U.S. and China have since soured.

The nations exchanged 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of each other’s goods over the summer, and Trump on Monday announced that he was directing the U.S. Trade Representative to impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports.

The new tariffs are expected to go into effect on Sept. 24 and will be set at a 10 percent rate until the end of the year, when they will increase to 25 percent. 

Trump has also vowed to slap another round of tariffs on $267 billion in Chinese goods if China retaliates against this round. China said on Tuesday that it would retaliate against the tariffs.