Name: FedEx CEO Has Some Advice for President Trump
Uploaded: 2017-03-16
Duration: 4 min 42 s
Description: As Trump prepares to meet with China’s President Xi for the first time.

Fred, it's been more than two months now that President Trump has been in the White House. How's he doing so far when it comes to business issues? What do you think? Well, I think he's certainly a man of his word. He said he wanted to tackle immigration, he did it. He said he wanted to do away with the Trans Pacific Partnership, he did it. He said he wanted to tackle Healthcare. And the House of Representatives has a bill there and we're waiting to see what he does on trade. Well, you are a big believer in free trade. And obviously FedEx does business in almost every country around the world. What is it that you want President Trump to do and not to do on the trade front? Well I think the most important thing that the President should do on the trade front is to recognize the value of open markets. I mean, we are a very small part of the world's population. 95 % of the other consumers live outside of our borders. So if we want to have a high standard of living in the United States, we have to be able to produce things for other countries, and equally important, we have to be able to buy products that they make. Well, as you know, getting tough on China was a main theme on his Make America Great Again Campaign. You have done so much business in China. You know the Chinese mentality. What do you think that, does it make sense for America to have a tougher trade policy when it comes to China? Well, I think it makes sense provided the trade policy is on getting them to open up their markets rather than restricting our market for them. The average American family has a benefit from trade imports Of almost $ 12, 000 a year, in other words if we didn't have those imports, TVs, cell phones, microwaves, appliances and so forth, then our standard of living would be less by $ 12, 000 per family of four. So we benefit from imports. As you know, in April President Trump is gonna be meeting with China's president here in the United States. What advice would you give to President Trump on the message that he should deliver so that we can have still good relations with China? You need to open up your markets and stop these activities like forcing technology transfer, cyber espionage That American businesses have been adversely affected by. You need to open your markets, so this is a two way street. And second I think he needs to make clear that the United States as well as virtually every other nation in the world insist on open navigation on the high seas, which China is attempting to. Were strict with their South China sea policy. I know you are a big supporter of tax cuts, but what do you think of the Trump plan to connect a cut in corporate taxes with a tax On imports. Well, you're talking about the so- called border adjustability tax. The border adjustability tax, in my opinion, has no chance of becoming law. The retailers are very adversely affected by it, as would every low and middle- income person in America because it would make the Price of our imports at Walmarts and Penneys and Target and Amazon and all go up. But let's say it does happen. What does that mean for FedEx and for your customers and for your business? The last time that was tried, a bill was introduced in the spring of 1929, which became law in 19 '34. And was Reed Smood and Willis Hawley, republicans. And it was probably the biggest single reason that the depression, the recession of 1930 became a depression. So are you saying that if this comes to be, we could have a depression or a recession? Absolutely. I mean if we significantly restricted trade, it will cause a contraction in U. S. GDP. The most recent study that I saw about it, it would cause about 5 million people to lose their jobs. As I mentioned a moment ago, U. S. families benefit by $ 12, 000 a year in buying goods which would otherwise be priced much more expensively So, that is not a good policy. It's opening markets that's the key, not closing ours. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

As Trump prepares to meet with China’s President Xi for the first time.