Trump tells the world to invest in US or pay the price

Washington: President Donald Trump has told global business leaders they will face steep tariffs if they do not make their products in the US, as he affirmed his intention to raise hundreds of billions, “even trillions”, of dollars through taxes on imports.

Speaking by video from the White House to the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Switzerland, Trump ran through his flurry of executive actions since his swearing-in and claimed he had a “massive mandate” from the American people to bring change. He laid out a carrot-and-stick approach for private investment in the US.

“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,” he 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, a lifelong tariff advocate who has called them “the greatest thing ever invented”, previously signalled levies of up to 25 per cent on goods from Canada and Mexico being introduced as soon as February 1.

He also used his first major economic speech as president to tell Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reduce the price of oil.

“You’ve got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election. That didn’t show a lot of love,” he said.

Trump asserted that cutting the oil price would immediately bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, remarking that OPEC nations were “very responsible” for the war’s endurance.

And he said he would demand that central banks around the world follow the US lead by reducing interest rates, which rose globally in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who faced frequent barbs from Trump during the president’s first term, has said the central bank will make its decisions based on what’s best for the economy and independent of political considerations or pressure.

Trump said he spoke to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who told him the kingdom wanted to invest $US600 billion ($1.4 trillion) in the US over the next four years. Trump quipped that he thought the figure should be rounded up to $US1 trillion – a remark that drew some laughter from the crowd in the hall in Davos.

OPEC’s cuts signal a major shift of market control into the hands of Saudi Arabia and its allies.Credit: AP

Introducing Trump, Davos founder Klaus Schwab told the new president that his return and his agenda have “been at the focus of our discussions this week”. He invited Trump to speak at the summit in person next year.

Trump, who promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war before taking office, said it remained a top priority, but he offered few clues for how he would do it.

“One thing very important: I really would like to be able to meet with President [Vladimir] Putin soon and get that war ended,” Trump told the Davos audience. “We really have to stop that war. That war is horrible.”

Earlier in his address to the forum, Trump laid blame on the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries for keeping the price of oil too high for much of the nearly three-year war. Oil sales are the economic engine driving Moscow’s economy.

“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” Trump said. “[OPEC+] are very responsible to a certain extent for what’s taking place”.

In the largest hall in the Davos Congress Centre – seating capacity 850 – Trump’s appearance drew nearly standing-room-only turnout. The crowd included diplomats, human rights advocates, academics, central bank governors and business leaders. His return to the White House and his barrage of executive orders have been the talk of the town this week in the snowy Swiss ski resort.

At times, Trump drew a few groans, like when he derided “inept” members of the outgoing Biden administration. The loudest laughter came when WEF president Borge Brende said Trump had called Chinese President Xi Jinping over the weekend, and the US leader quickly corrected him: “He called me.”

“I was impressed [by] the force of his convictions and by what he said. I don’t share his opinion on many topics, but I thought he was well-prepared and knew who he was talking to,” said Benedict Fontanet, a Swiss lawyer.

Others cringed at the “America First” ambitions of Trump yet again.

“It’s absolute determination to ‘make America great again’ at the expense of the rest of the world,” said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.

“It’s favouring American workers at the expense of workers everywhere ... There’s nothing, nothing about the rest of the world.”

with AP

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