Trump reiterates he will cut regulations, taxes

President Donald Trump yesterday met with a dozen American manufacturers at the White House, pledging to slash regulations and cut corporate taxes, but warning them he would impose taxes on imports if they move production outside the country.
Trump, who took office on Friday, promised to bring manufacturing plants back to the United States — an issue he said helped him win the November 8 election — and has not hesitated to call out by name companies that he thinks should bring outsourced production back home.
He asked the group of chief executives from companies including Ford, Dell Technologies, Tesla and others to make recommendations in 30 days to stimulate manufacturing, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris told reporters.
The new president told the CEOs that he would like to cut corporate taxes to the 15% to 20% range, down from current statutory levels of 35% — 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%. Maybe more,” Trump told business leaders.
“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 in the Roosevelt Room.
The meeting ran longer than expected.
Fields said he was encouraged by the tone. “I know I come out with a lot of confidence that the president is very, very serious on making sure that the United States economy is going to be strong and have policies — tax, regulatory or trade — to drive that,” he said.
Trump told the executives that companies 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.