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“Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes as 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 — differing amounts — but a tariff, which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt under the Trump administration.”
Trump also told business leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that he is working to reverse inflation and illegal immigration while boosting fossil fuels production in the United States.
“What the world has witnessed in the past 72 hours is nothing less than a revolution of common sense,” Trump said via video conference, adding that he would focus on deregulation and making the United States a hub of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies while extending tax cuts passed during his first term in office.
“The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we’re going to use it. Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, it will make the United States a manufacturing superpower.”
Donald Trump in a file photo. (Image: Reuters)
The remarks were the first of Trump’s four-day-old presidency to global business and political leaders at a time when markets are on edge over his plans for broad tariffs on imported goods.
Trump joined via video conference from Washington. The business leaders included Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
Also read: Trump and China can still spring a big surprise for global markets
More than a thousand executives, officials and others from around the world filled the main hall at the convention for Trump’s speech, including former US Secretary of State John Kerry and Polish President Andrzej Duda. People cheered as Trump’s face showed on the big screen.
Business leaders are eager to hear more about Trump’s concrete plans on tariffs after he threatened broad import duties and suggested they could start on February 1.
Trump has moved quickly to crack down on immigration, expand domestic energy production and has threatened to impose steep tariffs on the European Union, China, Mexico and Canada.
Trump has also withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement. He says he will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, though other countries may not adopt the new name. He has also threatened to take back the Panama Canal from Panama.
He has pardoned more than 1,500 supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed effort to overturn his 2020 election loss, drawing outrage from lawmakers and police whose lives were put at risk.
Trump is moving to dismantle diversity programmes within the US government and is pressuring the private sector to do so as well. That has left some in Davos searching for new words to describe workplace practices that they say are essential to their businesses.
