President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from a trans-Pacific trade agreement and threatened a "very major border tax" on products sold by American firms that relocate their factories overseas.
The moves fulfil Mr Trump's election promises, ending US involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the signature trade deal negotiated by Democratic former president Barack Obama with 11 Pacific Rim countries that the Republican denounced as a potential killer of American jobs.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Mr Trump said after signing the executive order in the Oval Office, adding that it would be a “great thing for the American worker”.
His threats to impose a border tax on US firms is primarily directed at American companies that move to Mexico, a low-cost location, and sell back into the US market, though the tenor of his language and his plans to pursue protectionist policies will concern international competitor countries including Ireland that rely heavily on US multinationals for employment and investment.
Protectionism
The moves signal the new president’s intention to act on his manifesto of economic nationalism and protectionism, as laid out in his “America first” inaugural address on Friday, and his campaign pledges to adopt a more aggressive stance towards foreign competitors in a bid to boost American industry.
The businessman's strong opposition against trade deals helped him win the White House. During the campaign, he called the TPP "a horrible deal" and a "potential disaster" – language that appealed to the voters of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, states that sealed his election victory. The American "rust belt" suffered from heavy job losses in the manufacturing sector due to international competition.
Mr Trump also plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. He spoke with the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto over the weekend and said on Sunday that he would meet them soon to begin talks.
Mr Trump filled the third full day of his presidency with a busy schedule of meetings and signings of executive orders. He put his signature to two other orders, one that cut government funding for foreign groups that provide abortions and the other imposing a hiring freeze on non-military federal workers.
Both will delight his conservative Republican support base, which is intent on rolling back the progressive social changes of the Obama era and wants to see a reduction in the size of the government.
During a morning meeting with business leaders at the White House, Mr Trump renewed his election-campaign threat to take retaliatory action against American businesses that close US factories in favour of foreign plants, warning that he would impose financial penalties on the companies.
“If you go to another country, we are going to be imposing a very major border tax,” he said.
Regulations
Attendees at his meeting included Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, two companies that have operations in Ireland. Mr Trump spoke about trade, taxes and regulations as part of the Trump administration's plans to bring manufacturers back to the US.
“We want to start making our products again. We don’t want to bring them in. We want to make them here,” he said, setting out the terms and conditions underlying his ambitious economic plans.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t trade because we do trade, but we want to make our products here.”
Mr Trump said that he planned to cut regulations by 75 per cent and to reduce taxes “massively” for the middle class and companies to “anywhere from 15 to 20 per cent”.
Reaching across a table to shake hands with Mr Dell, the US president promised the prospect of fewer regulations to allow his business to grow. Dell employs 2,500 employees in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
“When Dell wants to come in and do something monstrous and special, you are going to have your approvals really fast,” he said.
