Trump declares U.S. ‘open for business’

President tells elite economic forum U.S. a far more inviting place for foreign companies to spend, invest, build

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump highlighted his tax cuts and deregulatory efforts with a salesman’s pitch to an elite economic forum in Switzerland on Friday: The United States, he said, is now a far more inviting place for foreign companies to spend, invest and build.

While discounting some of Trump’s more grandiose claims, many economists agree that he has generally made the United States more welcoming for businesses.

Last month, Trump signed a tax package that cut the corporate income tax to 21 per cent from 35 per cent. The Republican Congress has also passed laws to overturn at least 15 rules put in place by the Obama administration, and the administration has put dozens of other regulations on hold. Those steps should encourage more overseas businesses to move to the United States or expand existing operations, economists said.

“It was a vastly exaggerated claim, but there is some truth to it,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Before Trump, “the high marginal tax rate and some of the regulation on specific industries did mean the U.S. was not always the first choice,” Posen said.

Nicholas Veron, a fellow at Bruegel, a think-tank in Brussels, Belgium, said that among European businesses, “there is some agreement that the tax plan will make it more attractive to invest in the U.S.”