Trump expected to welcome Chinese investment in US, despite threatening tough tariffs on country’s products
President-elect will seek private funding for infrastructure improvements, including from China, investment forum told
While Donald Trump might take a hard line on Chinese exports to the United States, he will likely welcome Chinese money, according to business observers.
The US president-elect threatened a trade war against China during his campaign, vowing to levy a 45 per cent punitive tariff on Chinese imports to save American jobs.
But a Trump administration would open its arms to Chinese money flowing into the United States, Jack Wadsworth, former advisory director of Morgan Stanley and honorary chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said at a forum on Monday.
“I think the new administration will recognise that cross-border capital flows are good and help job creation and economic growth,” Wadsworth told the forum on US-China investment in New York.
Trump has pledged to spend US$1 trillion over the next decade on infrastructure, including “highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools and hospitals”. That plan would be mainly funded by the private sector.
Meanwhile China, with the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves and a track record of building things quickly, is eyeing investments in the US.