What you need to know
- President Trump has given an interview with Fox Business Network.
- He spoke about how taxation was an incentive for companies to return manufacturing to the U.S.
- He also said that "if we wanted to put up our own border", Apple would make "100 percent of their products in the United States."
President Donald Trump has told Fox Business Network he may tax businesses who manufacture goods outside of the U.S., in a bid to try and incentivize companies to return manufacturing to U.S. soil.
As Reuters reports, the President sat down with Fox Business on May 14, where he "threatened" to tax American companies that made their goods outside of U.S. soil. From the report:
President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to impose new taxes on American companies that produce goods outside the United States, another move his administration could make to push supply chains away from China and raise new trade barriers. Trump said in a Fox Business Network interview that taxation was an "incentive" for companies to return manufacturing to the United States. He did not specify whether these would be new across-the-board tariffs or another form of taxes, which would require an act of Congress.
Naming Apple specifically, the President said "You know, if we wanted to put up our own border, like other countries do to us, Apple would build 100 percent of their product in the United States. That's the way it would work."
According to the report, when the President was asked about tax incentives for companies that returned manufacturing to the U.S., "he said he may tax them if they don't", further suggesting it was their duty to make the move:
"One incentive, frankly, is to charge tax for them when they make product outside. We don't have to do much for them. They have to do for us"
As Reuters notes, the President also said that global supply chains were "stupid", and argued that they shouldn't exist:
"I said we shouldn't have supply chains. We should have them all in the United States. We have the companies to do it. And if we don't, we can do that"
