U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday invited global businesses to manufacture their products in the U.S. and promised them lower taxes but warned if they choose to produce their goods elsewhere, they would have to pay tariffs to export them to the United States.
“America is back and open for business,” Trump, in a video linkup from Washington, told corporate leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”
Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he wants to cut the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21 to 15%, although that needs approval from his political allies in the Republican-controlled Congress. Lawmakers have begun debating how to extend and reshape personal and corporate tax cuts enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office.
Trump promised the U.S. would supply Europe with the liquified natural gas it needs but contended that the European Union treats the United States “very, very unfairly” with the extent of regulations it imposes on American businesses operating in the 27-nation bloc.
The president complained specifically about tariffs and environmental impact statements for new construction projects, calling them “things you shouldn’t have to do.”
Trump promised that his administration would make the U.S., already the world’s biggest economy, “a manufacturing superpower” and said the government during his four-year term would eliminate 10 business regulations for every new one that is imposed.
He said he plans to ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut the price of oil they produce to boost the global economy.
He contended that if the current global oil price — about $77 a barrel — is cut, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.” Russia uses revenue from its own oil production to help fund its three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.
Trump said that in the global economy, the U.S. “just wants to be treated fairly by other countries.”
He said the U.S. wants to have a “fair relationship” with China, the world’s second-biggest economy.
“We don’t want to take advantage,” he said of Washington-Beijing relations. “We just want to have a level playing field.”
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