US President Donald Trump said that he was ready to impose new taxes on local manufacturers that produce goods outside the US. This move is meant to move supply chains away from China as the tensions between the two countries continue to heat up.
Trump told Fox Business Network that the new taxation
changes were designed to return manufacturing to the US. He 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.”
Some US officials argue that Trump’s administration is exaggerating with its efforts to force businesses to move production away from China. When asked if companies would get tax breaks in exchange of returning manufacturing to the US, Trump said that he might instead tax them if they didn’t return.
“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,” Trump noted.
The US Commerce Department data showed that Trump’s new
tariffs cost US businesses $46 billion by January 2020, even before the new
coronavirus was a global issue.