Trump offers incentives to firms relocating to US

Washington — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday offered a series of incentives to encourage foreign companies to relocate to the US if he wins the November 5 election and pledged to create special manufacturing zones on federal lands.

Trump said during his speech in Georgia the incentives, which include low taxes and few regulations, would be offered only to companies that relocated manufacturing to the US and hired American workers.

"I want German car companies to become American car companies. I want them to build their plants here," Trump said.

"The centrepiece of my (economic) plan is for a manufacturing renaissance," he told a cheering audience of supporters.

Companies that did not make their goods in the US, however, would face "a very substantial tariff" when sending their products into the US, he said.

Trump was speaking in Savannah, which has one of the largest ports in the US and is a car manufacturing hub.

Trump said he would reward US-based manufacturers with tax breaks for research and developments costs and the ability to write off the costs of heavy machinery in the first year.

He pledged to appoint a global manufacturing ambassador to convince foreign manufacturers to move to the US. He said he would also create special low tax, low regulatory zones on federal lands for American-based manufacturers.

On Monday, Trump said he would slap a 200% tariff on John Deere’s imports into the US if the agricultural equipment company moved production to Mexico as planned.

Preserving and creating American manufacturing jobs by slapping expansive tariffs on friends and foes alike has become a central theme of Trump’s economic message, particularly in the closing months of the race against US vice-president Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

While Trump and his allies say trade barriers are necessary to protect US industry, mainstream economists roundly say Trump’s proposals would boost consumer inflation.

It is unclear what federal lands would be offered to foreign companies under Trump’s plan, or how such an arrangement would work. If land remains in federal hands while foreign companies operate on it, those companies could in theory be exempt from property tax.

Trump also reiterate a pledge to lower corporate tax rates, but only for companies that manufacture domestically. The former president said earlier this month that he would cut the rate to 15% from 21% for domestic manufacturers.

He also said the US needed to get out of the war in Ukraine and Harris and President Joe Biden had no plan to do so. “I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated, I’ll get out.”  The US does not have troops in Ukraine but has given military and humanitarian assistance worth billions of dollars to Ukraine.

Harris, who polls show is in a tight race with Trump, is set to unveil a suite of new economic proposals in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Some of those proposals will be broadly aimed at helping Americans build and maintain wealth, Reuters reported.

Reuters