WH: Efforts to Bring Manufacturing Home From China; Trump Wins Lockdown Wars, and Other C-Virus Updates
All hands are on deck as the Trump administration evaluates measures that would drive manufacturing back to the United States from China amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The effort stretches from the White House and National Security Council to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Defense Department to Health and Human Services. “Everyone’s working,” a senior administration official told the Washington Examiner.
This official said that while the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included an appealing corporate tax rate, a reduced regulatory burden, and lowered the cost of repatriating profits at the same time the administration has “aggressively” enforced trade laws, more is needed to encourage manufacturers to relocate from China.
Options range from tax abatement and regulatory relief, to a potential $25 billion “reshoring fund.”
The next step is likely to take the form of tax or direct incentives for shifting production to the U.S., this person said. “You don’t want to pick winners and losers, and you don’t want to pick specific companies, but we need, and are, looking at the the critical industries for the health and safety of the United States.”
This could include money for states to use to work with companies, including for research and development or potential infrastructure grants, or tax incentives for capital investment.
“It’s not an easy process, but there’s definitely a sense that the next step has to be taken whereby our companies are not competing against countries and that we, as a country, start competing against other countries to make [the U.S.] a very attractive place for U.S. production to take place,” this official said.
“It’s a huge, huge discussion point,” the official added. “Huge. It’s happening throughout the whole enterprise.”
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WSJ: Coronavirus Updates
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