Arizona Chamber CEO explains how stock plunge affects the state

PHOENIX — The CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce says “we should all be rattled” by Monday’s stock plunge.

“If we don’t get our trade policy right … we’re not only going to slow growth in this country, we could put this country into a recession,” Glenn Hamer told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Tuesday.

Hamer said one concern for Arizona is China halting purchases of U.S. farm goods, which he said is a huge industry for the state.

“We export a lot of those goods. We export probably at least $50 billion worth of goods to China,” he said.

“We need to keep in mind that our friends in the agricultural industry are already suffering from tariffs and a loss of market to China, so this adds salt to the wound.”

Hamer said the warning lights for a recession are “flickering” in certain parts of the economy, including service and manufacturing.

“Why would we want to take any chances when we could do a couple simple things?” he said.

Those solutions include repairing relations with China and ratifying the the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement.

Stocks suffered their biggest loss Monday since December.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 3% to 2,844.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.9% to 25,717.74, and the Nasdaq composite fell 3.5% to 7,726.04.

Stocks bounced back in early trading Tuesday on Wall Street, as China eased some of the pressure in its trade war with the U.S. by stabilizing its currency.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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