President Donald Trump got together with chief executives from the leading U.S. companies on Thursday to discuss plans on how to bring millions of jobs back to the U.S.
Two dozen CEOs visited the White House where Trump addressed issues, like how the country has lost almost one-third of its manufacturing jobs ever since the 1994 U.S. North American Free Trade Agreement.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization 16 years ago, 70,000 American-based factories have closed. This is no coincidence.
On his campaign trail, Trump promised to bring back jobs from overseas.
He has already influence companies, including the air conditioning company Carrier, to keep jobs in the U.S.
“Bringing manufacturing and creating high-wage jobs was one of our campaign themes,” said Trump. “Everything is going to be based on bringing our jobs back.”
Thursday meeting proves this is still very much a priority. “I’m delivering on everything we said,” said Trump after a month in office.
The executives who attended the meeting were from General Electric, Dell, 3M, Ford Motor Co., Campbell Soup, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Whirlpool, Dow Chemical Co. and United Technologies.
“Today we have 24 CEOs from the largest manufacturing companies in the country and even in the world. They represent–people in this room–nearly $1 trillion of sales and two million employees, large majorities of which are in the United States. They share our commitment to bring manufacturing back and to create jobs in this country,” said Trump.
Trump has previously said he plans to overhaul the tax code and offer incentives to encourage companies to create U.S.-based jobs.
“Several of the CEOs who met Trump are part of a coalition that supports a so-called border adjustment tax, which would impose a 20 percent tax on goods that are imported into the country while providing write-offs for goods that are exported,” writes Newsmax.
“It is very clear the president is interested in lessening the tax burden,” said Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co.
General Electric Co. chief executive Jeff Immelt expressed similar sentiments.
“Tax reform a high priority for job creation. Business community will come together to help find a workable solution,” tweeted Immelt after the meeting.
“We left that meeting with a sense that the president wants to promote the ongoing growth of American manufacturing and that he appreciated what we had to say,” said Harley-Davidson in a statement to Fox News.
Since entering office, Trump has consistently been meeting with executives, which looks like the first step to reversing the long decline in factory jobs.
“Since Inauguration Day, Trump has made a weekly habit of meeting with heads of industry, business owners and economic advisers. The president’s C-suite get-togethers are already proving to be much more frequent than those of his most recent predecessors. In his first two months in office, Trump has gathered business leaders from a range of sectors seven times, while former President Barack Obama hosted two such meetings in his first year, and former President George W. Bush huddled with business leaders three times during his second year in the White House,” writes Fox News.
So far, it looks like Trump is on the right track to improve the economy and the manufacturing industry.
On February 28, the president will be addressing Congress about tackling these big economic issues.