Trump warns CEOs of 'border tax' for shifting jobs abroad

US President Donald Trump today warned business leaders that a "substantial border tax" will be imposed on companies that set up manufacturing units abroad as he promised to "massively" cut down regulations and taxes to encourage firms to produce products domestically.
During a meeting with 12 top business leaders of the country at the White House, Trump said a "wave" of manufacturing is now headed back to the US and warned them of consequences if they shift jobs abroad.
"There will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here. So we've seen it. It's gonna be wave. You watch, it's gonna be a wave. I've always said, by the time you put them in these massive ships or airplanes and fly them I think it's gonna be cheaper," Trump said at his breakfast meeting with the top CEOs.

He promised that he would cut taxes "massively" and slash regulations by 75 per cent or more.
"What we're doing is we are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that's massively. We're trying to get it down to anywhere from 15 to 20 per cent, and it's now 35 per cent but it's probably more 38 per cent than it is 35, wouldn't you say? That's a big thing," he said.
"A bigger thing, and that surprised me, is the fact that we're gonna be cutting regulation massively. Now, we're gonna have regulation and it'll be just as strong and just as good and just as protective of the people as the regulation we have right now," he added.

Trump said the problem with the regulation is that it puts a lot of hurdles for companies and businesses.

"When somebody wants to put up a factory, it's gonna be expedited," Trump said.
"You have to go through the process, but it's gonna be expedited and we're gonna take care of the environment, we're gonna take care of safety and all of the other things we have to take care of, but you're gonna get such great service," he said.
Trump told the business leaders that they are welcome to
compete within the US, but he would not like if they ship jobs out of the country.

"A company that wants to fire all of its people in the US and build some factory someplace else and then thinks that that product is gonna just flow across the border into the US, that's not gonna happen. They're gonna have a tax to pay, a substantial border tax," said the new President.
"Some people would say that's not free trade, but we don't have free trade now because we're the only one that makes it easy to come into the country. If you look at China, if you look at many other countries...Many other countries, they can't believe what we do.

"So we take in things free, and yet, if you wanna take a plant or you wanna do something, you wanna sell something into China and other countries, it's very, very hard," he said, arguing that massive free-trade agreements have disadvantaged American workers.
"In some cases, it's impossible. They won't even take your product. But when they do take your product, they charge a lot of tax. So I don't call that free trade. What we want is fair trade, fair trade. We are gonna treat countries fairly, but they have to treat us fairly," Trump said.
"If they're gonna charge tax to our countries -- if as an example, we sell a car into Japan and they do things to us that make it impossible to sell cars in Japan, and yet, they sell cars into us and they come in like by the hundreds of thousands on the biggest ships I've ever seen, we have to all talk about that. It's not fair, it's not fair," Trump said.

Promising the business leaders that he will not impose any new tax, Trump said: "All you have to do is stay. Don't leave, don't fire your people in the US, we have the greatest people."
The top business leaders attended the meeting were Michael S Dell (Dell Technologies), Jeff M Fettig (Whirlpool), Mark Fields (Ford Motor Company), Alex Gorsky (Johnson & Johnson), Marillyn A Hewson (Lockheed Martin), Klaus Kleinfeld (Arconic), Andrew N Liveris (Dow Chemical), Mario Longhi (US Steel), Elon R Musk (SpaceX), Kevin Plank (Under Armour), Mark S Sutton (International Paper) and Wendell P Weeks (Corning).
The Vice President Mike Pence was also present at the meeting along with other senior officials.