Donald Trump has vowed to impose punitive taxes on US companies that move manufacturing overseas.
The president-elect promised a 35% tax on products sold in the United States by any business that fired American workers, and built a factory elsewhere.
Companies should be “forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake”, he said.
Donald Trump has promised to help blue-collar workers, as well as reduce taxes and regulations on businesses.
Image source Flickr
He tweeted: “The US is going to substantialy [sic] reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the US without retribution or consequence, is WRONG!”
Donald Trump went on: “There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35% for these companies wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units etc., back across the border.
“This tax will make leaving financially difficult, but these companies are able to move between all 50 states, with no tax or tariff being charged.
“Please be forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake! THE UNITED STATES IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS.”
Last week Donald Trump tweeted a warning to Rexnord Corp, an industrial supplier based in Milwaukee that plans to move a bearings plant and its 300 jobs from Indiana to Mexico.
“Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over the country. No more!” he wrote.
Experts have warned that the president-elect will face legal challenges if he tries to impose tariffs on specific companies without congressional approval.
Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, predicted that the US courts would block such a move.
London Mayor Boris Johnson says he intends to renounce his American citizenship to prove his “commitment to Britain”.
He told the Sunday Times that his citizenship was “an accident of birth that has left me with this thing. I’ve got to find a way of sorting it out”.
Boris Johnson, who was born in New York, has in the past been forced to pay US tax because of his American citizenship.
He has just completed a six-day tour of cities in the US.
Boris Johnson said he would approach US ambassador Matthew Barzun to explore what steps he had to take to give up his American nationality.
The Conservative politician – who was born in Manhattan in 1964 and owns a US passport alongside a British one – said that relinquishing his citizenship was a “laborious business, they don’t make it easy for you”.
Boris Johnson’s passport was renewed in November 2012 but he had previously stated that he would give it up after being told in 2006 that, as a native born American, he could only use a US passport to travel in that country, and not his British one.
“The reason I’m thinking I probably will want to make a change is that my commitment is, and always has been, to Britain,” he said.
In January Boris Johnson settled a US tax bill he had previously described as “absolutely outrageous”.
The mayor had faced a demand from the US authorities to pay capital gains tax on profits from the sale of his house in north London.
American law requires all citizens to pay US taxes even if they live abroad.
Boris Johnson is running for parliament in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the forthcoming general election.
In 2012 Boris Johnson told David Letterman that he could “technically speaking” become US president, as that nation requires its presidential candidates to be born there.
His trade mission to the US this week was aimed at bolstering London’s science and technology industries.
Boris Johnson began his east coast tour in Boston before heading to New York City and Washington DC.
[youtube JcuBePBHPdg 650]
[youtube gZdY-qJRMG0 650]
