Trump calls for taking other countries’ companies

SAVANNAH (AP):

Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged not only to stop US businesses from offshoring jobs, but also to take other countries’ jobs and factories in part through huge tariffs that economists say could actually raise domestic prices.

Among the ideas the former president pitched in Georgia was cutting the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 15 per cent, but only for companies that produce in the US. His opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 per cent. It had been 35 per cent when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed a bill lowering it.

“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”

The former president has pressed Harris on the economy and has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry, even as economists warn US consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in US history.

That didn’t stop Trump from declaring, “If you don’t make your product here then you will have to pay a tariff, a very substantial tariff, when you send your product to the United States.”

Trump has not provided specifics on his plans

Trump has not answered specific questions about his ideas that could change their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his US-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.

The former president wants to personally recruit foreign companies and to send members of his administration to do the same. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. For example, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.

Among the incentives he has proposed is offering foreign companies access to federal land. The Bureau of Land Management has restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry Monday night about whether companies from China would be excluded, given his longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.

And he vowed to boost auto manufacturing if elected again, saying, “I want German car companies to become American car companies.” BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen already have major plants in the US, and forcing a larger migration of car manufacturing to the US would take years and likely drive up costs.

Trump returns to Georgia — without Brian Kemp in attendance

The Republican presidential nominee unveiled his plan in Savannah, Georgia, which has one of the busiest ports in the country for cargo shipped in containers.