President Donald Trump told business leaders Monday he would impose a “very major” border tax on companies that move jobs outside the U.S. and said he would cut regulations by 75 percent.

A breakfast meeting with corporate executives at the White House kicked off the first working day of a president who made the promise of greater economic opportunity for American workers a centerpiece of his campaign. Trump plans to continue the theme Monday by signing executive orders on trade and labor issues, and will meet in the afternoon with labor leaders and U.S. workers, an administration official said.

The meeting, with an advisory panel on manufacturing led by Dow Chemical Co. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris, welcomed some of the nation’s most prominent corporate leaders to the White House. During the transition, Trump at times used his new power as a cudgel against companies that provoked his ire with plans to move jobs overseas or with prices for weapons systems he considered excessive.

The president effusively praised the business leaders as “great people,” yet put them on notice that he was serious about the warnings about moving production overseas that he had issued during his campaign.

“If you go to another country” and cut U.S. jobs “we are going to be imposing a very major border tax” on that product, he told the executives.

Eye on Automakers

Among those in the room was Mark Fields, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co., which canceled plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico after Trump criticized the company during the campaign for plans to move small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico. Ford announced its plan to scrap the Mexico plant hours after Trump posted a tweet threatening to punish automaker General Motors Co. for building a factory in Mexico, though Ford said at the time its decision was unrelated.

No executive from General Motors was included in the breakfast meeting.

Trump mostly projected an optimistic tone Monday. “What we want to do is bring manufacturing back,” he said, highlighting tax-cut plans he said would rev up economic growth.

“We are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that’s massive,” Trump said.

He suggested that a roll-back of business regulations would be a particular focus of his economic plan, saying his observation has been that “regulation wins” over tax cuts as the more important factor in promoting growth.

Other business leaders at the morning meeting with Trump included Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Inc.; Jeff Fettig, chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Corp.; Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Marillyn Hewson, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.; and Klaus Kleinfeld, chairman and CEO of Arconic Inc.

Also participating were Mario Longhi, president and CEO of United States Steel Corp.; Elon Musk, chairman and CEO of Tesla Motors Inc.; Kevin Plank, CEO and founder of Under Armour Inc.; Mark Sutton, chairman and CEO of International Paper Co.; and Wendell Weeks, chairman and CEO of Corning Inc.

 

Copyright: Bloomberg.