ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd. is opening its oldest online platform to U.S. merchants, promising to help American businesses at a time U.S.-Chinese tensions are darkening the outlook for global trade.

The Chinese e-commerce giant Tuesday opened up Alibaba.com to U.S. sellers for the first time, allowing them to peddle to buyers around the world who seek merchandise to stock shelves or materials to make products.

Alibaba says it now wants American producers to hawk their wares as well, eventually helping them tap a vast Chinese market. Fruit and vegetable wholesaler Robinson Fresh and Office Depot Inc. will be among the first U.S. names to join Alibaba.com.

Two years after billionaire founder Jack Ma promised Donald Trump he would help create a million American jobs, Alibaba is opening up its wholesale platform to U.S. sellers who want to tap a multi-trillion dollar global procurement market.

The initiative could generate new income and also goodwill for Alibaba in the United States, particularly as the United States and China spar over trade. The threat of rising tariffs is now encouraging businesses to source their merchandise and components locally, said John Caplan, president of Alibaba’s North American business-to-business effort.

U.S. business owners “increasingly want to find domestic producers because of trade concerns and this platform will allow them to do that,” Caplan said. He anticipates strong demand for American agricultural produce and consumer products.

Alibaba will send staff to promote the service to businesses and local chambers of commerce, and plans a September promotional event to drum up awareness, Caplan added.

“The success of this program will depend on whether Alibaba can recruit a strong number of successful sellers,” said Jillian Ryan, principal analyst at researcher eMarketer. “It will ultimately determine whether Alibaba will be able go toe-to-toe with Amazon in the B2B commodity market.”

The Chinese Internet powerhouse is opening up Alibaba.com just as a decelerating home economy depresses the top line. The online retailer is expected to soon post its slowest quarterly revenue growth in three years.

Unlike its better-known consumer bazaars Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba.com was originally envisioned as a way to match foreign firms with Chinese wholesalers. (SD-Agencies)