Majority of Americans oppose tariffs on Chinese goods, Pew survey shows

Opposition to tariffs on imports from US allies like Canada may be unsurprising. But a majority of Americans – including nearly a quarter of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents – also believe tariffs on Chinese goods hurt the US, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Conducted from March 24 through 30, the survey of 1,801 American adults occurred after the Donald Trump administration had already imposed two rounds of 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports.

The findings are “packing against the narrative” that tariffs on Chinese imports are good for Americans, said Jack Zhang, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, and reflect growing public awareness of the effects of tariffs.

“The media coverage has broken through the kind of filter bubbles that we normally live in … people actually know how it’s going to hurt their livelihoods,” Zhang, who was not involved in the Pew survey, said.