Concern is growing among businesses about the lack of clarity from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the head of a powerful lobby group said Friday.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said that his members are scratching their heads and searching for answers about how the billionaire businessman would operate if he wins the White House in November.
{mosads}”I hear mostly concern from our members,” Donohue told reporters during a trade briefing at the Chamber in Washington.
Donohue said he hears questions like, “Who is this guy? What do we know about him? How will he behave?”
“They’re calling up all their buddies who are involved in his business or who know him from wherever. I’ve been talking to some of those people as well.”
Donohue said that Trump has been meeting with business leaders and is discussing why trade is a significant issue. The businessman also met with congressional leaders Thursday on Capitol Hill.
“I think all of that is a reality that they’re trying to learn who is he is and what he will eventually do,” he said.
Specifically, Donohue suggested that Trump might step back from his calls to slap Mexico and China with heavy duties on their imports to the United States.
He said that at least one think tank report argued that the policy would create a recession and push unemployment back up into double digits.
Meanwhile, the Chamber is urging Congress to pass the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) this year even as anti-trade rhetoric ripples across the presidential campaigns in both parties.
Despite the rough political atmosphere, Donohue is hopeful that the problems with the TPP on issues such as pharmaceuticals and data localization will get worked out and the House and Senate will pass the agreement after the November elections.
“We’re within reach but we won’t get anything done until the main event is over,” Donohue said.
Whether Trump or Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton wins, the new president “will have to deal with the fundamentally reality of what the geopolitical implications of TPP are,” he said.
Trump and Clinton are both opposed to the TPP.
Donohue said that passing the TPP will determine which economies wil align with U.S. views and which will lean toward China.
“When you walk into the White House and sit in that chair, you have to make the trains run,” Donohue said.
The Chamber doesn’t endorse presidential candidates, although they do back House and Senate candidates.
Donohue said he wasn’t surprised that “trade is being dumped all over” here and around the world during elections.
When economic growth is hovering around 2 percent annually, he said, the candidates are “going to complain about trade because it’s one of the places you can hide.”
But he said most of the arguments being made by the candidates are “very empty.”