Trump promises manufacturers he will cut regulations, taxes

WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump met a dozen prominent American manufacturers at the White House yesterday, promising them he would slash regulations and cut corporate taxes, but warning them of penalties if they moved production outside the country.

Mr Trump 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, down from current statutory levels of 35 per cent — a pledge that will require cooperation from the Republican-led US Congress.

However, 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,” he added, without providing details.

“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,” Mr Trump said, referring to Mr Mark Fields, chief executive officer of Ford, who sat around the boardroom-style table.

Mr Trump, who took office on Friday, promised to bring manufacturing plants back to the US during his campaign, and has not hesitated to call out by name companies that he thinks should bring outsourced production back home.

The new President told companies that they were welcome to negotiate with governors to move production between states, but said that 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,” Mr 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.

While Mr Trump issued similar threats during the campaign and after his election on Nov 8, his warning yesterday put companies on notice that he intended to match his campaign rhetoric with action.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Trump argued that the US had “made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon”.

He stressed that he would implement an “America first” policy that would involve two rules: “Buy American and hire American”.

Between winning the presidential election in November and taking office, the real estate developer hosted a number of US CEOs in meetings in New York. Mr Trump 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.

Mr Trump also received a boost yesterday when Mr Marco Rubio, the Republican Florida Senator who ran for President, said he would vote for Mr Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil chief executive nominated for secretary of state.

Mr Rubio, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, was one of several Republicans who had voiced concern about Mr Tillerson’s close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. AGENCIES