President-elect Donald Trump and Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, emerge from the elevators to speak to reporters following their meeting at Trump Tower, Jan. 9, 2017 in New York City. (Photo : Getty Images)
The promise made by Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma to create one million jobs in the U.S. may sound virtuous, but for some people, the possibility that it will be fulfilled could be far-fetched.
An article in the dailycaller.com said that this huge task may not be completed since the U.S.-China bilateral relationship is not conducive at present.
The report added that Ma did not give details about his promise and Alibaba also appeared to have no plans to build new factories, establish new operations centers or open new investments.
According to an expert, all that Ma wanted was to move business onto the Alibaba platform.
"He's basically saying, 'Route your trade through me,'" Dr. Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The report said that Ma's promise to Trump has been made before as the Alibaba founder has been trying to sell American products to Chinese consumers for about two years.
"We want to help U.S. entrepreneurs, small business owners, and brands and companies of all sizes sell their goods to the growing Chinese consumer class. Chinese consumers will get to buy the American products they want. This, in turn, will help create American jobs and increase U.S. exports," Ma said in a 2015 op-ed outlining his business strategy.
According to the report, the presence of American trade on Alibaba's platform is currently small.
Rico Ngai, Alibaba spokesperson, told CNN Money that in 2016, about 7,000 U.S. brands have sold nearly $15 billion worth of goods to Chinese consumers.
The report said that in order to create one million U.S. jobs, Alibaba has to increase U.S. business on its platform 142 times over.
As Ma has been making efforts to achieve his goals, the U.S. has not been so successful at trying to increase its exports to China.
"If it were so easy that one guy could do it, it would have happened a long time ago," Scissors added.
Some observers however, pointed out that there factors that help create an environment for Alibaba to fulfill its pledge to the administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
By 2021, China's e-commerce industry is estimated to reach $840 billion while cross-border trade may exceed $150 billion by 2020. Although the country is poorer than the U.S., China's middle class is estimated to be about 300 million.
But currently, the trend in U.S. trade and export seem to contradict Alibaba's visions, according to the report.
Except for popular brands, Chinese consumers show little interest in U.S. goods. In addition, consumers are also not keen on spending money on U.S. products as the economy is slowing and the yuan depreciation has made them more expensive.
Aside from these reasons, if Trump makes good on his previous threats to charge Chinese exports with high tariffs, it would make China dislike U.S. products even more.
With the present situation, Alibaba would find it very difficult to expand and create one million jobs in the U.S., as Jack Ma promised.
