Trump challenges EU: “Companies manufacturing in America will pay very low taxes”

Brussels – No sustainability, favourable tax treatments for all. Those who expected a friendly approach from Donald Trump toward the European Union will have to think again and right away. The U.S. president openly challenges the EU at the World Economic Forum in Davos, trashes the green economy and calls on European businesses. “My message to businesses worldwide is: come and manufacture in America, and you will get the lowest possible taxes,” he says. “Decide not to make your products in the U.S.”, he threatens, “—and that is your choice—and you will have to pay billions in tariffs.”

Trump’s intervention is under the banner of the unfair competition that the EUs feared. More: the U.S. president exploits hesitancy in green investments to reassure the industry that it will be “business as usual” with him. “I have ended the ridiculous green deal” represented by the Paris agreements, he claims. This is one of the first things Trump says after connecting with the Davos audience—a message that further challenges the European Union on an issue dear to the 12-star club. He hints that the goal of saying “no” to sustainability and trying to attract Europe’s productive fabric and private capital across the Atlantic is to dismantle the design and economy of the old continent.

Unless the EU bends to the wishes of the United States because Trump, in fact, dictates the rules. “Europeans want billions of euros from Apple, they want billions of euros from Google, which are U.S. companies,” he stresses, referring to the litigation opened by the European Commission. “I try to be constructive because I love Europe and its states, but Europe treats the U.S. unfairly,” he says. A call to change course if the White House is to change its attitude. Trump says it openly. One of the big problems of the United States today is the deficit with the rest of the world. A deficit that is commercial and, therefore, financial. He cites Canada, arguing that too many Canadian products are bought that “we don’t need,” and the same goes for “made in the EU”. The guest of honour at the World Economic Forum wants to rebalance economic trade flows only in favour of his country.