The US public is more concerned about protecting jobs than who owns the big companies

US Republican presidential candidate-elect Mitt Romney recently caused controversy because of his aggressive stance on America’s economic relations with China. He promised, if elected in November, to declare China a “currency manipulator” and impose tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting fears of a trade war.

But while Romney’s comments have attracted criticism from some on his own side, who argue the US has more to lose than gain from a tariff war with China, GlobeScan’s most recent public attitudes tracking suggests that Romney’s stance on tariffs is consistent with a majority of US public opinion.

Since it was initially measured in 2002, American public support for trade barriers as a way of protecting jobs has remained consistently high, rising from 60% in 2002 to 65% in 2011.

However, other findings suggest this is not part of a new mood of economic nationalism. GlobeScan’s data also show that the numbers who think that government should prevent foreign companies from buying national companies has fallen significantly since 2006.

Taken together, these findings suggest that in hard economic times, the need to safeguard US jobs is winning out over both free-market doctrine and patriotic sentiment among the US public.

As job de-localisation emerges as a sensitive issue, this suggests that the balancing act that companies operating in the US will face – between the need to keep labour costs down and the need to avoid being seen as footloose and cavalier in their approach to their responsibilities as an employer – will become ever more delicate.

Source: GlobeScan Radar 2011, wave 2

Sam Mountford is director, global insights, at research specialist Globescan www.globescan.com