Trump protectionist agenda ‘pretty bloody awful’: BHP boss
BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie has stepped up his concern over Donald Trump’s trade plans.
BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie has stepped up his concern over Donald Trump’s trade plans, calling the US President’s protectionist agenda “pretty bloody awful”, but saying US infrastructure and tax plans could still boost commodities demand.
Speaking on the sidelines of a mining conference in Miami, Mr Mackenzie told Bloomberg television that some of Mr Trump’s policies could improve US investment but that others showed “bad leadership”.
“The benefit from business confidence that has come from the Trump administration based, a little bit on what he’s promised on tax, his desire to cut through some of the politics to get more investment in infrastructure, and his general commitment to get growth going in the US can only be good for us,” Mr Mackenzie said. “On the other hand we are very anxious about the possibility that instead of that good leadership we could have bad leadership from the US on free trade.”
The comments follow concerns raised last week after the miner logged a $US3.24 billion ($4.2bn) underlying first-half profit on the back rising commodities market. At the time, Mr Mackenzie said protectionism had the potential to inhibit trade and restrain job creation and investment, which had resulted in increased global uncertainty and led the company to increase its focus on debt reduction.
“The long-term economic growth for the world is probably around 3 per cent but if we are going to continue on the journey to lift people out of poverty we have to get that around 4 per cent,’’ Mr Mackenzie said.
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