US President Donald Trump met with a dozen prominent American manufacturers at the White House on Monday, promising them he would slash regulations and cut corporate taxes.
But he warned them of penalties if they moved production outside the country.
Trump, who took office on Friday, promised to bring manufacturing plants back to the United States during his campaign, and has not hesitated to call out by name companies that he thinks should bring outsourced production back home.
He told the chief executives of Ford, Dow Chemical, Dell-Technologies, Tesla and others that he would like to cut corporate taxes to the 15 per cent to 20 per cent range.
This is down from current statutory levels of 35 percent – a pledge that will require cooperation from the Republican-led US Congress.
But he said business leaders have told him that reducing regulations is even more important.
“We think we can cut regulations by 75 per cent, maybe more,” Trump told business leaders in the Roosevelt Room.
“When you want to expand your plant or when Mark wants to come in and build a big, massive plant or when Dell wants to come in and do something monstrous and special – you’re going to have your approvals really fast”, Trump said, referring to Mark Fields, CEO of Ford, who sat around the boardroom style table.
The new president told companies that they were welcome to negotiate with governors to move production between states, but said those businesses that choose to move factories outside the country would pay a price.
“We are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the product when it comes in”, Trump said.
“A company that wants to fire all of its people in the United States, and build some factory someplace else, and then thinks that that product is going to just flow across the border into the United States – that’s not going to happen”, he said.
Trump was scheduled to hold a meeting later on Monday with labour leaders and U.S. workers, the White House said.
Trump, a Republican who took over from former Democratic President Barack Obama, was also expected to sign executive orders to renegotiate
the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, and to formally withdraw the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Between winning the presidential election in November and taking office, Trump hosted a number of U.S. CEOs in meetings in New York, including business leaders from defense, technology and other sectors.
He also met with leaders of several labor unions, including the AFL- CIO.
Trump, a real estate developer, has particularly focused on manufacturing, lamenting during his inaugural address on Friday about “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation” and vowing to boost US industries over foreign ones. (Reuters/NAN)
Nigeria have a lot of lessons to learn here. If our government lacks ideas, at least,they can copy.
ReplyDeleteFG is doing the same to encourage home products. It is a good idea from FG to stop importation or impose high duty on some goods.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is difficult, tough and seems to be not working because things had gone so bad by over depended on foreign products for a long time overt he years.
Also, wrong approach or strategics by our leader.
l think is a good for Nigerian to force people to sit down to think of investment by looking at resources around them and trust their ability.
I AM DOING THE SAME TOO AND HAVE STARTED INVESTING INTO AGRICULTURE RATHER THAN KEEP WORKING FOR PEOPLE.
THINK WELL, THINK FUTURE AND DONT THINK NOW BECAUSE FUTURE IS SO BRIGHT
Innoson isn't manufacturing cars ,yet fed govt is busy buying foreign cars ,how is that
ReplyDelete