texas border operations
American Chamber of Commerce
Written by John G. Murphy
Senior Vice President, International Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The American business community recognizes that trade is important to America’s prosperity. Today, more than 40 million American jobs depend on trade. Selling more American-made goods and services to the 95 percent of the world’s consumers who live outside our borders is a key driver of economic growth.
Public opinion polls have long confirmed that a majority of Americans think less about trade than other public policy issues such as jobs and inflation. In an October 2024 Gallup poll, fewer than half of 1 percent of Americans named trade as the “most important issue facing America today.”
But contrary to the political debate in Washington, most Americans argue that they benefit greatly from international trade. Below are the results of a survey of 1,684 people conducted in October 2024, commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
This research was conducted by occam™ from AlphaROC, Inc. (All Rights Reserved). Gep Pop level MOE is ~2.4%. The MOE for voters is approximately 2.6%.
1) Americans believe international trade is more positive than negative for their standard of living by a nearly 6-to-1 margin (59% positive vs. 10% negative).
2) By a 4-to-1 margin (59% to 14%), Americans believe we should be able to freely buy products from and export U.S. products to friendly countries without government intervention.
3) Two-thirds of all Americans say it is important or very important for the United States to play a leadership role in creating pro-growth rules for international trade in trade agreements with friends and allies. That’s what I think. Only 6% said it was not important.
4) Almost half of all Americans (48%) support people in the United States trading more with people in other countries. only one
