Former U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke is closely watching the Trump administration's trade negotiations with Beijing.

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive memo to slap China as much as $60 billion in tariffs on imports.

Locke, who served as the first Chinese-American governor of Washington, said the tariffs would be disastrous to the state's economy. He said the tariffs also avoid a bigger problem in doing business with China. In an interview this week with the PSBJ, Locke talked about the potential impacts of the tariffs, especially as they relate to Washington's economy.

What does China mean to Washington's economy? China is our No. 1 export destination from agriculture to technology goods and especially airplanes.

What are you contacts in China saying about this? Well, they very much want to reach some sort of compromise with the United States. They sent one of their top emissaries a week ago, and he was kind of rebuffed by the Trump administration. So that was not an encouraging signal.

How is China likely to respond to tariffs? They'll simply impose tariffs on U.S. goods from automobiles to agricultural products.

How would tariffs affect Boeing? China is just going to order more Airbus and fewer Boeing airplanes. A few years from now, the number of planes coming off the assembly line will be fewer, you won't need as many workers, and that will lead to a reduction in the workforce for Boeing.

What will the tariffs mean for consumers? Imposing tariffs on Chinese goods coming to the United States will simply raise the price of Chinese goods and, in many cases, those products are only made in China. Many of the shoes we buy, for example, come from China. I don't see people running out and buying Italian. American consumers will simply eat the cost. By and large, Americans are just going to keep buying it and they'll pay a higher price, which really means less disposable income to buy a new car or go on vacation or pay for medical care or to set aside for their retirement funds.

What's the biggest concern doing business with China? Our biggest concern with China is the lack of a level playing field in terms of U.S. investment in China. Many sectors in the Chinese economy are off limits to foreign investment, whereas virtually none in the United States are off limits to foreign investment.

Where investment is allowed, in many cases, you have to be a less than 50 percent partner and you have to join up with a Chinese partner. If you're talking about technology, that Chinese partner can learn your trade secrets and your technology and eventually run with it after your joint venture agreement is over. They will develop the sophistication and the expertise to go off on their own. That's a big concern. So is the requirement that you have to give the government your technology secrets as a condition of doing business in China. Imposing tariffs on Chinese goods and services will not address the issue.

Would the tariffs affect relations forged between Seattle and China during President Xi Jinping's 2015 visit, such as the Global Innovation Exchange? The thing about nations is — whether it's Germany or France or England or China or Korea or Japan — we can have significant differences in some issues and still have close cooperation in others.